Eris Lifesciences soars 7%, hits five-month high in a weak market

Eris Lifesciences, a small-sized pharmaceutical company, has caught the fancy of investors. The stock, on Friday, jumped 7 per cent on huge volumes to end at Rs 474. In the past few weeks, the counter has been clocking huge volumes. In October, some large domestic mutual funds took an aggressive position in the stock, monthly disclosures show. Citibank raised the price target on the stock to Rs 750, higher than the consensus target of Rs 600. “The trading pattern and recent buying activity shows, the recent rally in Eris Lifesciences has more legs to it,” said an analyst.

Close shave for HNIs in Ujjivan IPO 

Wealthy investors, who have placed leveraged bets worth nearly Rs 50,000 crore on Ujjivan Small Finance Bank’s IPO, will make money if the stock gains more than 75 per cent on listing. The so-called non-institutional investor (NII) portion of the Rs 750-crore IPO was subscribed 486 times. In other words, an investor who has placed a bid for shares worth Rs 486 crore, will get an allotment for shares worth Rs 1 crore. “After factoring in the interest costs, the cost of acquisition of one share in the NII category is Rs 66 as against the issue price of Rs 37,” said an investment banker. Investors, whose money is riding on the IPO, are hoping Ujjivan Small Finance Bank’s listing is as grand as IRCTC or CSB Bank. 

Share sale overhang on DMart

Market players are expecting shares of Avenue Supermarts, operator of DMart retail chain, to remain soft due to the share sale overhang. RK Damani-led promoter group has to divest 5.2 per cent stake by March 2020 to comply with the 25 per cent public float norm. At the current market rate, the share sale is worth a little less than Rs 6,000 crore. The promoters have reportedly picked up bankers for the share sale, which will be carried out in one or more tranches. “We expect shares of Avenue Supermarts to remain weak given the new share supply that is going to enter the market. However, long-term investors can use this as a buying opportunity. After the share sale is done, higher float could trigger Avenue’s entry into marquee indices,” said an analyst.

Contributed by Samie Modak