ONGC auction gets bids for Rs 12,000 cr worth shares

The auction for the sale of Government’s five per cent stake in ONGC today got bids for 29.22 crore shares worth about Rs 8,500 crore, but could fetch only about two-third of the targeted proceeds of over Rs 12,000 crore. LIC came to the rescue in the end bidding for the remaining portion.

At the end of the one-day auction, the auction got total bids for 29.22 crore shares, including 19.92 crore on the NSE and about 9.3 crore on the BSE, exchange officials said. The final figures were yet to be updated on the websites of the two bourses.

The Government had proposed to sell about 42.77 crore shares through the auction at a floor price of Rs 290 a piece. The total bids were worth about Rs 8,500 crore and accounted for 68.3 per cent of the total offer size.

Cabinet allows PSUs to buy back shares

The Cabinet approved buyback mechanism for public sector undertakings. Now, PSUs like any private company can buy back its shares. This new mechanism aims to help the Government in disinvestment programme.
Amidst intense pressure, the Cabinet has withdrawn a proposal for duty imposition on power generation equipment. The proposal was to impose 19 per cent duty on power generation equipment for projects with capacity of 1,000 MW and above.