Bulk, block deals have just got bigger

STOCK MARKETS IN FIRST-HALF

FIIs, brokerages, promoters and mutual funds transact Rs 48,535 crore block deals. Bulk deals and block deals are growing in size on the bourses. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), broking firms, promoters of companies and mutual funds collectively transacted securities worth Rs 48,535 crore through these windows in the first six months of the current financial year. Comparable figures for the last year are not available.

While bulk deals accounted for 77.5 per cent or Rs 37,607 crore, block deals "� a window for FIIs and promoters of companies to execute a single transaction for a large number of shares "� shared the remaining 22.50 per cent or Rs 10,927 crore.

A total of 2,831 million shares was transacted through bulk and block deals. Of the total bulk deals of 2,338 million shares, 1,122 million shares were bought and 1,216 million shares sold. As far as block deals were concerned, 246 million shares were bought and 247 million shares sold.

FIIs were quite active on both the counters, with their total transactions valued at Rs 16,242 crore. They bought and sold shares worth Rs 13,365 crore through bulk deals and Rs 2,877 crore via block deals.

Member brokers, who do jobbing and arbitrage for their clients, bought and sold shares worth Rs 18,202 crore through bulk deals.

The promoters, who intend to consolidate their cross-holdings in various companies, carried out bulk deals valued at Rs 6,040 crore and block deals worth Rs 8,051 crore.

In the first half of 2007, two promoters "� B Ramlinga Raju of Satyam Computer and Raghav Bahl of TV 18 "� transferred their personal holdings in their respective companies to holding firms.

While Ramlinga Raju and his family sold 27.86 million shares (8.59 per cent) of the company valued at Rs 2,260 crore to his holding company SRSR Holdings, Bahl sold 18.68 lakh shares worth Rs 118.50 crore to Network 18 Fincap.

Among foreign investors, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup Global and Fidelity Fund Mauritius topped the list, accounting for almost one-third of the deals.

Goldman Sachs was at the top of the chart with total deals valued at Rs 1,640 crore, followed by Citigroup Global (Rs 1,369 crore), Fidelity Fund (Rs 1,357 crore), Morgan Stanley (Rs 889 crore), HSBC Financial Services (Rs 836 crore) and T Rowe Price International (Rs 736 crore).

Among member brokers, security firms Composite Securities topped the list with bulk deals worth Rs 766 crore, followed by Asit C Mehta Investment (Rs 654 crore), HJ Securities (Rs 523 crore), Sam Global Securities (Rs 324 crore), MBL & Co (Rs 255 crore) and Prashant Jayantilal Patel (Rs 227 crore).

Reliance Mutual Fund grabbed the number one slot among domestic funds accounting for bulk deals valued Rs 573 crore, followed by ICICI Prudential (Rs 434 crore), HDFC Mutual Fund (Rs 406 crore), Birla Mutual Fund (Rs 118 crore) and Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund (Rs 100 crore).

A member broker is required to disclose on a daily basis through data upload software (DUS) all bulk deal transactions in a scrip for a client where the total quantity bought or sold in a single or multiple trade is more than 0.5 per cent of equity shares of the company listed on the exchange.

Similarly for block deals, a member broker is required to make disclosure on a daily basis through DUS with respect to all deals that have been executed by him on behalf of his clients or 'own' account in the block deal window.

Trades with a minimum quantity of five lakh shares or minimum value of Rs 5 crore executed through a single transaction on the window are qualified as a block deal.