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ICICI Pru Life stock falls near 11% in debut trading at BSE

Stock listed at highest end of price band; analysts say stock's fundamentals sound

Salil Panchal
Published: Sep 29, 2016 07:05:24 PM IST
Updated: Sep 29, 2016 07:24:49 PM IST
ICICI Pru Life stock falls near 11% in debut trading at BSE
Image: REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
The life insurance company decided to price the issue at the higher end of the IPO, at the topmost end of the Rs 300 to 334 price band.

Shares of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company debuted for trading at the stock markets on Thursday, sliding down to close at Rs 297.65 at the Bombay Stock Exchange, down 10.88 percent compared to the issue price of Rs 334.

This has become the first major Indian life insurance company to list at the stock exchanges.

ICICI Prudential is the joint venture between the ICICI Bank and Prudential Corporate Holdings, part of the financial services Prudential Group.

The life insurance company decided to price the issue at the higher end of the IPO, at the topmost end of the Rs 300 to 334 price band.  

The broader benchmark 30-share Sensex Index fell 465.28 points or 1.64 percent to end the day at 27,827.53 points, on news of rising geo-political tension between traditional rivals India and Pakistan.

Earlier this month, the Rs 6,057 crore ICICI Prudential Life Insurance initial public offering (IPO) was lapped up by investors and was oversubscribed 10.48 times. Bids were placed for 138.77 crore equity shares, against an issue size of 13.23 crore equity shares.

Santosh Singh, head of research of Haitong Securities, said that ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company had strong fundamentals, but said that the right valuations for the company were about 10 to 12 percent lower than the current price. “However, investors with a longer 3 to 4 year horizon could buy at current levels,” he told CNBC-TV18 when trading in the stock commenced.

The listing of insurance firms will ensure greater transparency of their functioning. The global book running lead managers to the offer were DSP Merrill Lynch and ICICI Securities.

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