YES Bank, Sona BLW Precision Forgings and Mahindra CIE Automotive were among the most active counters on Monday amid block deals by select shareholders in these companies. All the three stocks dropped sharply amid heavy trading volumes.
The troubled private lender, YES Bank, tanked 13 per cent to Rs 14.40 at open as the three-year mandatory lock -in period ended today with investors free to exit the beleaguered bank. The counter saw some heavy trading volume within the first hour of the trading session.
The trading volumes in these three companies indicated that the bulk/block deals were executed in early trade today. However, Business Today independently could not verify the same. Also, the details of buyers were not ascertained at the time of writing this report.
According to the data from National Stock Exchange, 29.02 crore equity shares worth Rs 441.53 crore changed hands till 10.15 am on Monday. Similarly, 3.70 crore equity shares of YES Bank amounting to Rs 57.18 crore exchanged hands on BSE at the same time.
As of latest shareholding, a total of 47.28 lakh retail investors owned 642.31 crore YES Bank shares as on December 31, 2022. This was the highest number of retail investor participation in any listed company on NSE, as per PRIME Database.
YES Bank commands the lowest ‘Buy’ percentage (at mere 7 per cent) among top 100 companies. It is among the least covered stock (14 analysts) in the top 100 pack. Also, ‘Sell’ recommendations (64 per cent) on the stock is among the highest in the largecap pack.
ICICIdirect said YES Bank has witnessed a gradual improvement in business growth as well as asset quality in the last six quarters. Recently, the bank concluded sale of stressed assets to JC Flower, which has led to substantial reduction in GNPA to 2 per cent.
Among the other active stocks, private equity player Blackstone was looking to sell its entire 20.5 per cent stake in Sona BLW Precision Forgings through a block transaction at a floor price of Rs 400 per share. The PE fund is among one of the promoters of the company, which owned about 12 crore equity shares as of December 2022 quarter .
Sona BLW Precision plunged over 6 per cent to Rs 408.10 on Monday as 12.32 crore equity shares of the company worth Rs 5,053.17 crore were traded on BSE. On NSE, 88.5 lakh equity shares worth Rs 367.19 crore changed hands. However, the stock was down 3 per cent after the bulk deal was executed.
In its report released in January, Nuvama Institutional Equities had given a ‘reduce’ rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 400. “The risks to the earnings that we articulated in great business greater expectation seem to be playing out—thereby leaving little-to-no margin for error,” it said.
However, ICICI Securities had a buy rating on the stock in its January report with a target price of Rs 574, suggesting a 36 per cent upside in the stock. Motilal Oswal remained ‘neutral’ on the stock, whose target was met.
Along with this, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) announced to sell a 4.6 per cent stake in Mahindra CIE via block deals. According to media reports, the floor price has been fixed at Rs 355 per share. The base size of the block deal is Rs 615 crore and comes with a 60-day lock-up on further sales of shares.
M&M is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing corporation headquartered in Mumbai and it’s also one of the promoters of Mahindra CIE Automotive, which owned 9.25 per cent stake or 3,51,02,068 equity shares of the company as of December 31, 2022.
Shares of Mahindra CIE plunged more than 9 per cent to Rs 357 on Monday. 2.45 crore equity shares of the company amounting to Rs 880 crore were traded on BSE, whereas 63.87 lakh equity shares worth Rs 233.78 crore exchanged hands on NSE.
On March 8, 2023, Geojit BNP Paribas had given a ‘sell’ tag with target of Rs 376 on Mahindra CIE Automotive, whereas Motilal Oswal has suggested to buy the stock with a target price of Rs 450 apiece. ICICIDirect pegs the stock at Rs 500, with a ‘buy’ rating.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Business Today)
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