Busiest week for IPOs in 4 years

This will be the first time since September 2011 when three Initial Public Offerings will hit the market in a single week. Three are of Navkar Corporation (Rs 600 crore), Pennar Engineered (Rs 156 crore) and Shree Pushkar Chemicals (Rs 70 crore). If one factors in the Indian Oil mega share sale of Rs 9,300 crore (on a base price of Rs 387 a share), the week is set to see heavy fund-raising.

Big B fires up Nitin Fire stock

Shares of Nitin Fire Protection gained about 13 per cent last week, after superstar Amitabh Bachchan's name featured in a bulk deal transaction involving a buy order of 1.5 million shares, or 0.51 per cent stake, worth around Rs 6.5 crore. Analysts say the Street was also enthused by the healthy revenue growth forecast provided by the company for the current financial year. Benchmark indices were down three per cent last week.

Back to the classroom

In 2013, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had mandated that key personnel from investment banking firms pass the Series IX Merchant Banking Certification Examination conducted by NISM. However, those with more than 10 years of experience could simply attend a continuing professional education programme. After a near two-year wait, the first such programme was held by NISM a few weeks ago. While the small group of senior merchant bankers who attended the programme found it to be informative, they felt it was time such programmes be opened to stock exchange and Sebi officials as well.