Singapore govt sells 3.4% TVS Motor stake

The Government of Singapore on Monday sold a 3.4 per cent stake in TVS Motors through a block deal at Rs 71.50. The shares were bought by Morgan Stanley International.

The deal, worth approximately Rs 5.7 crore, was executed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Block deals have become a regular feature on the BSE.

Recently, block deals were executed in some of the large capitalisation stocks such as Bharti Tele-Ventures, Oil and Natural Gas Commission and Housing Development Finance Corporation.

This has lead to higher traded volumes on the bourse. The BSE registered a volume of Rs 2,051.20 crore on Monday, compared with Rs 2,513.06 crore on Friday.

In one of the largest block deals in India, private equity investor Warburg Pincus had recently sold over 6 per cent equity in Bharti Tele-Ventures to a couple of foreign institutional investors.

The deal was worth Rs 2,500 crore. A head of equity with a foreign broking firm said block deals are preferred by large investors as its easy to keep the wraps on the identity of the buyer or the seller.

A block deal is a trade executed between the interested parties at a pre-determined price and quantity. A block deal in market terms is called 'run a floppy'.

"Most of the recent large block deals were executed on the BSE as the trading activity is slightly lower in the morning session compared with the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Also, BSE has an edge as the exchange starts a minute or so before the NSE does.

The block deal in TVS Motors was at a slight premium to is Friday's close of Rs 71.35. The stock hit an intra-day high of Rs 76 before closing at Rs 72.50, up 1.61 per cent from Friday's close.

More than 86.22 lakh shares changed hands including the block deal. On the NSE, the counter witnessed volumes of 7.82 lakh shares today.