Banks, FIs cut pie in 224 active stocks

Holding slips by 7.34 percentage points in March quarter

Banks and financial institutions (FIs) reduced their holding in 224 actively traded stocks in the quarter ended March 2004.

Data extracted from the quarterly shareholding pattern filed by 641 companies with the stock exchanges show that banks and FIs, led by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and other insurance firms, reduced their holding in as many as 224 firms during the January-March quarter, a reduction of 7.34 percentage points.

In another 300 companies they maintained their holding at the December 2003 levels.

The holding of banks and FIs in FAL Industries, Mandovi Pellets, Incap, Hitachi Home and Life Solutions and Uttam Galva declined by more than five percentage points each during the quarter.

In Magma Leasing, Banswara Syntex, Alok Industries, Shree Digvijay Cement, Dena Bank, CCL Products and Spentex Industries they reduced their stake in the range of two-five percentage points.

While in 24 companies including ACC, Apollo Tyres, IFCI, Punjab Communications, Polaris Software, Madras Cement, ABC Bearing, Rolta, GSFC and J J Exporters their holding declined by one-two percentage points during the quarter.

Most of the FIs and banks booked profits by offloading their holding during the recent market rally.

LIC cut its stake in major frontline stocks during the quarter. As a group, insurance companies reduced their holding in cement major ACC from 17.19 per cent at the end of December 2003 to 16.74 per cent at the end of March 2004, in Apollo Tyres from 5.47 per cent to 4.65 per cent, in HCL Infosystems from 4.25 per cent to 3.46 per cent, in ITC from 11.46 per cent to 11.33 per cent, ABC Bearings from 12.26 per cent to 10.63 per cent and in Shree Digvijay Cement from 2.61 per cent to 1.95 per cent at the end of March 2004.

ICICI Bank's holding in Hitachi Home and Life Solutions declined by 5.55 percentage points from 16 per cent in December 2003 to 10.45 per cent at the end of the March quarter.

In Uttam Galva, the bank almost halved its holding from 11.14 per cent to 5.27 per cent and in Banswara Syntex from 1.24 per cent to below one per cent.

The Industrial Development Bank of India reduced its holding in Incap to below one per cent in March 2004 from 5.80 per cent in December.

The institution's stake in Alok Industries fell from 9.30 per cent to 7.14 per cent and in Banswara Syntex from 6.88 per cent to 4.20 per cent.

IFCI also reduced its stake in Incap below one per cent from 3.01 per cent and in Alok Industries from 1.49 per cent in December to 1.29 per cent at the end of the March quarter.

Allahabad Bank booked profit in Magma Leasing by reducing its stake in the company from 21 per cent to 17.26 per cent, while Global Trust Bank reduced its stake in Spentex Industries from two per cent to below one per cent in the March quarter.