Gray Market Hints at Tepid Trading Debut for Biggest India IPO
- LIC’s listing bound shares erase premium over last one week
- Rate hike and shrinking liquidity may hurt appetite for shares
The Life Insurance Corp. of India headquarters in Mumbai, India.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Life Insurance Corp. of India’s $2.7 billion initial public offering, the biggest ever from the South Asian nation, may see a lackluster trading debut next week, according to indications from the so-called gray market.
Shares of LIC are trading at a discount of about 15 rupees to 949 rupees ($12.28), the top end of the marketed range, in the gray market on Wednesday, traders told Bloomberg News. This compares with a premium of as much as 85 rupees at the start of the month. In the unregulated market, investors bet on the price at which the shares of a company will debut on bourses to profit from any sizable jump.