After opening the day in green, Share markets in India have remained rangebound and are presently trading flat. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note, with stocks in the pharma sector and stocks in the consumer durables sector witnessing maximum buying interest. While stocks in the metals sector are leading the losses.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 20 points (down 0.1%) and the NSE Nifty is trading down by 9 points (down 0.1%). Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.4%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.2%. The rupee is trading at 64.59 to the US$.

In news from stocks in the IPO space. According to an article in Livemint, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has put in a bid of US$ 1 billion (approx. Rs 65 billion) for shares of the New India Assurance Co. Ltd (NIA).

The initial public offering (IPO) of NIA was fully subscribed on day one itself on the back of this development.

The Rs 96 billion NIA IPO was subscribed by 1.04 times on the first day of the share sale itself. The IPO is the second largest this year after state-owned General Insurance Corp of India Ltd’s (GIC Re) Rs 113 billion share sale.

The portion of shares reserved for institutional investors in the NIA IPO saw a subscription of 2.13 times on Wednesday, while those reserved for retail investors and high net-worth individuals (HNIs) were subscribed 2% or 0.02 time each.

The NIA IPO includes a fresh issue of Rs 19.2 billion. NIA plans to use the proceeds from the fresh issue for augmenting its capital base to support growth and expansion of business, improving solvency margin and solvency ratio. The insurance firm has set a price band of Rs 770-800 for the IPO. The offer will close on 3 November and will see a total stake dilution of 14.3%.

This is the second straight state-owned enterprise IPO, in which the largest insurance firm in the country has made a substantial bid.