Despite record fall in equity values and slowdown in overall economy, the Karachi stock market witnessed 10 IPOs in 2008, worth Rs 7.4 billion as compared with 9 IPOs worth Rs 15.5 billion in 2007. Interestingly, 9 out of 10 offerings in 2008 occurred before the imposition of price floor rule.
A total amount of Rs 17.4 billion was received from investors in 2008 (excluding Media Times Limited) against these offerings, resulting in value-wise over-subscription of 2.4 times. In 2007, total amount subscribed was Rs 27.2 billion--over-subscribed by 1.8 times.
However, the smaller size (in terms of value) of IPO compared to previous year could be linked to the nonappearance of government offerings in 2008, Muhammad Sohail, analyst at JS Global Capital said. Out of 10 IPOs, 6 companies represented the financial sector, of which 3 were stockbrokers as shown in the table. Others include, one from cement, two from chemicals, and one from technology and communication sector.
"Though the offered size was relatively smaller, huge investor interest was witnessed in IPOs of two brokerage houses, which took place during first quarter of 2008, when no one thought that brokers will face problems in future", Sohail said.
However, later due to depressed market sentiment, share offering of another stockbroker was under-subscribed. Thus, during 2008, seven offerings were over-subscribed and two were not fully subscribed. The result of recently issued IPO by Media Times is still awaited.
He said that the outgoing year may be the worst year for the local stock markets. With only 5 trading sessions remaining, the KSE 100 Index is down 51 percent (61 percent in $), its worst performance since the introduction of the index way back in 1991 when Pakistan's market was opened for foreigners as part of financial sector liberalisation.
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