Aster silicates which had made a public issue between the 24th and 28th of June in a price band of Rs 112-118 finally listed today. Readers would recall that Aster silicates which had 19 cases filed against it for cheque bouncing and had to give an exit option to investors to withdraw led to this inordinate delay in listing.

The listing was sedate but thereafter the volume, people going short and getting trapped so badly was all witnessed in one day. I believe looking at the track record of the company from the RHP (Red Herring Prospectus) and looking at the very first day’s trading this becomes a fit case of investigation by SEBI into what happened and “who done it”.

Coming to the actual listing the share opened at the BSE at Rs 127.70 and at Rs 128.05 on the NSE. The lows were Rs 123.50 and Rs 123.40 respectively. The highs were a staggering Rs 225 on the BSE and Rs 241.90 on the NSE. The closing prices were Rs 199.10 and Rs 205.55, a gain of more than 68% on the BSE and almost 75% on the NSE. This sharp rise was because people did not trust the numbers and felt that the price was too high and kept on shoring the share. Short sellers literally walked into a trap and were forced to cover their short sales at ridiculously high prices.

Now let us have a look at the trading numbers. Total traded volume was a staggering 9.59 cr shares which was 21.3 times the IPO size of 45 lakh shares. This number is really huge and needs to be kept in perspective. Look at the delivery volume, naturally it cannot be very high as a percentage, but even then it was 4.31% of the traded volume. The interesting number now emerges as a percentage of issue size of 45 lakh shares the delivery is a staggering 91.88%. I believe this is a record by itself and probably one of the highest delivery percentage since this website has started.

Looking at the traded volume, the price rise, the difference between the high and then the close and the last traded price, I believe this is a share to be completely ignored. Trading in this share would make one not only lose money, but also make one confused about fundamentals, valuations etc. I believe this is also a fit case for investigation by BSE, NSE and SEBI.