IRCTC IPO: Best listing in two years; stock opens at double the issue price, but markets want more

IRCTC Ltd’s stock made its stock market debut with a bang today, with the best stock market listing by any stock in the last two years. IRCTC stock opened at Rs 644 for trading on Monday on BSE, more than double the IPO price of Rs 320 per share, and immediately started surging, indicating the appetite of investors hungry for buying stakes in quality PSUs. The share price surged as high as Rs 698 per share until 10:23 am. The railway PSU stock price went up to Rs 644 in the pre-opening session on Monday on NSE, more than double the IPO allotment price of Rs 320 per share. Earlier this month, IRCTC IPO got a stellar response, getting subscribed by 112 times, becoming one of the few centurion public issues in recent times.

The government had said it would raise up to Rs 645 crore. But IRCTC’s IPO saw bids amounting to a whopping Rs 72,000 crore. Such a good response to the IRCTC IPO has brought PSU public issues into the limelight. Immediately following the IRCTC IPO, the fourth tranche of Bharat-22 ETF also got subscribed nearly 12 times on the final day of offering on Friday, with the issue seeing bids worth Rs 23,500 crore. Through the Bharat-22 ETF FFO, the government looked to raise a base amount of Rs 2,000 crore, along with a green-shoe option of around Rs 5,000 crore.

Nilesh Shah of Kotak AMC said earlier this month that the PSUs may gain favour with the investors in case of strategic disinvestment by the government. “If there is a strategic divestment, then certainly there will be rerating of these PSUs,” Nilesh Shah said. Citing the example of Hindustan Zinc, he said: “… the moment there is a strategic divestment, I am sure PSUs will get re-rated,” he said in a TV interview.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC)