June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Anu's Laboratories Ltd. and Gokul Refoils & Solvent Ltd. gained on their first day of trading in Mumbai, following the slowest month for initial share sales in two years.

Anu's, a maker of ingredients for pharmaceuticals, gained as much as 37 percent to 288.4 rupees and Gokul Refoils, a refiner of edible oils, rose 15 percent to 224.7 rupees.

The first-day gains may signal a revival in investor appetite for initial offerings after the slump in equity markets dented demand for new stocks. Two-thirds of Indian companies that sold shares for the first time this year are trading below their offer price, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Anu's, based in the southern city of Hyderabad, raised 802 million rupees ($19 million) selling 3.82 million new shares in an offer that ended May 15. The company will use the proceeds to build a manufacturing unit at Vishakhapatnam, southern India.

Anu's gained 63 rupees, or 30 percent, to 273 rupees at 10:39 a.m., compared with an initial offer price of 210 rupees.

The company exports about 20 percent of its products to Israel, Italy, Japan, France, the U.S. and Singapore.

Ahmedabad-based Gokul Refoils rose 10.4 percent to 215.3 rupees. The company raised 1.4 billion rupees selling 7.6 million shares at 195 rupees apiece to set up a soybean processing plant and invest in its Singapore unit.

Aishwarya Telecom Ltd. was the only Indian company to start trading last month after raising 140 million rupees, the lowest amount for IPOs since July 2006, according to Bloomberg. The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index fell 0.4 percent today, extending its 22 percent slump this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paresh Jatakia in Mumbai at pareshj@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 4, 2008 01:32 EDT