AU Small Finance Bank surges 10% after block deals

The stock surged 10% to Rs 711 on the BSE in early morning trade after a more than 9% equity trade in block deals.

Shares of AU Small Finance Bank have surged 10% to Rs 711 on the BSE in early morning trade on huge volumes.

Till 09:46 am; around 27 million equity shares representing 9.3% of total equity of AU Small Finance Bank have changed hands on the BSE, the exchange data shows. On an average sub 40,000 shares were traded daily in past two weeks.

The name of the buyers and sellers were not ascertained immediately. According to a TV report, Warburg Pincus sold 5% stake in AU Small Finance to marquee investor.

Last month, on July 13, 2018, World Bank arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) sold 12 million shares of AU Small Finance Bank for Rs 7.58 billion through an open market transaction.

The bank made its stock market debut on July 10, 2017 after existing investors sold a part of their stake in the company. It received licence from the RBI to set up a small finance bank in December 2016 and commenced its operations from April 2017.

The stock has nearly doubled against its issue price of Rs 358. Post listing, it gained 19% as compared to 20% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex till Thursday. The stock hit an all-time high of Rs 747 on April 27, 2018 on the BSE in intra-day trade. At 10:00 am; AU Small Finance Bank was trading 7% higher at Rs 687, as against 0.2% decline in the benchmark index.