Street debutants get knocked in the storm

About 40 per cent of the debutant gainers in this financial year have turned laggards as the stock markets were tossed by weak global trends.

However, Everonn Systems India today entered the market with a 175 per cent gain at Rs 245, against its issue price of Rs 140, and ended the day on the National Stock Exchange at Rs 477.35, a total gain of 240 per cent.

The stock touched an intra-day high of Rs 567, with a total of 10.35 million shares changing hands on the NSE.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange, the newest kid on the block closed at Rs 480.90 to finish as the biggest gainer on debut day this fiscal.

Of the 28 companies that have debuted on the market after IPOs since April this year, 18 have gained on listing against their issue price. Six of these, however, have failed to maintain those initial gains and are presently trading below the listing price.

There have also been two follow-on public offers from ICICI Bank and Bharat Earth Movers. ICICI's Rs 8,750-crore FPO was the biggest, while DLF's Rs 9,265-crore issue was the largest IPO.

Prithvi Haldea of Prime Database said, ''No issue is overpriced or underpriced. The market fairly values every issue. A company's fundamentals do matter. But a good company is a good investment at all times.''

He said that from the overwhelming response to ICICI and DLF issues that were lapped up by institutions and retail alike, it was evident that liquidity was not an issue for the Indian markets.