Shares of ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited listed on the bourses and as is the standard practice at the ICICI group began on a weak note. Shares were issued at Rs 661 and touched a low of Rs 638.15 on the BSE and Rs 638.25 on the NSE before a sharp turnaround saw prices rise. It appeared intraday players had begun to short the counter and their short covering led to the rally.
Earlier ICICI Lombard allotted 2,45,80,447 shares to 64 anchor investors comprising of 94 entities. The largest application has been made to Nomura of 18.15 lakh shares which amounts to 7.4% of the anchor allotment. Domestic mutual funds have been allocated 86.30 lakh shares which is 35.11% of the total allotment. The anchor book was impressive on all counts.
The subscription by QIB’s was indeed positive while that from non-institutional investors was tepid and was just about subscribed. The institutional portion was subscribed 8.17 times. The main concern by these investors was the previous performance of ICICI Prudential and the steep valuations being asked for ICICI Lombard.
The share listed at Rs 650 on the BSE and Rs 651.10 on the NSE against the issue price of Rs 661. It fell to Rs 638.15 and Rs 638.25 and then began the recovery. It wasn’t smooth sailing and after crossing Rs 661 there were many small swings. Th high of the day was Rs 694 on both the exchanges. The closing price was Rs 681.55 on the BSE and Rs 681.20 on the NSE.
| Exchange | Open | High | Low | Close | Net Change | % Gain/ Loss | Wt.Avg | Volume | Delivery | Del %age |
| BSE | 650.00 | 694.00 | 638.15 | 681.55 | 20.55 | 3.11 | 666.29 | 5912496 | 2348276 | 39.72 |
| NSE | 651.10 | 694.00 | 638.25 | 681.20 | 20.20 | 3.06 | 668.28 | 34610637 | 14136337 | 40.84 |
| Total | 40523133 | 16484613 | 40.68 |
The traded volume was 405.23 lakh shares which was 47% of the issue size of 862.47 lakh shares. Delivery volume was 164.84 lakh shares which was 40.68% of traded volume and 19.11% of IPO size. Certainly, the little interest shown by HNI’s and the grey market deals are the ones which have resulted in the delivery. The weighted average of the day’s trade was Rs 666.29 on the BSE and Rs 668.28 on the NSE. This indicates that other than those who traded at the beginning of the day when the price discovery happened, people have by and large recovered their cost. It’s a different issue that the recovery at the weighted average was less than a percent.The share closed with gains of a little over 3%. Th positive outcome of this listing has been the breaking of the jinx of ICICI shares closing below issue price on day one.
A large issue has listed and shown that the pricing was expensive. Even though institutional support for the company and the interest in the insurance sector in India which is a growing one drove demand, the outcome was disappointing. One Hopes SBI Life Insurance to list later does not belie expectations.
