After opening the day in the green, stock markets in India have continued their momentum and are presently trading on a positive note. Sectoral indices are trading on a positive note with stocks in the banking sector and capital goods sector witnessing maximum buying interest.
The BSE Sensex is trading up 306 points (up 0.9%) and the NSE Nifty is trading up 56 points (up 0.6%). The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.1%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading flat. The rupee is trading at 65.17 to the US dollar.
In the news from the IPO space, State-owned General Insurance Corporation of India has made a tepid stock market debut today after having concluded the Rs 113.7-billion initial public offer (IPO).
The scrip of the company got listed at Rs 850 on the bourses, a 6.8% discount to its issue price of Rs 912.
The IPO was oversubscribed 1.4 times during October 11-13.
GIC Re is the largest reinsurance company in India in terms of gross premiums accepted in Fiscal 2017, and accounted for approximately 60% of the premiums ceded by Indian insurers to reinsurers during Fiscal 2017.
According to CRISIL Research, it ranked as the 12th largest global reinsurer in 2016 and the 3rd largest Asian reinsurer in 2015, in terms of gross premiums accepted. GIC provides reinsurance across many key business lines including fire (property), marine, motor, engineering, agriculture, aviation/space, health, liability, credit and financial and life insurance.
To know more about the company, you can read our IPO note on General Insurance Corporation of India Ltd (requires subscription).
Speaking of IPOs, 2017 is set to be a record year for initial public offerings. However, is it worth investing in IPOs?
If past record is anything to go by, barring a few names that have quality, most IPO companies fail to live up to the hype. Also, the BSE IPO index has underperformed the Sensex over the past decade, as can be seen from the chart below:
