Public issues may create financial crunch

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">CHANDIGARH: With a slew of public issues including GAIL, ONGC, CMC preceding private issues, the public investors will be left in a financial crisis with no liquidity to buy other private company issues.<br /><br />Over the next two weeks, over 15 issues of public sector companies are on the verge of rolling out IPO by the end of the this fiscal, leaving investors in the city anxious as they would be left with no money to invest in the rest of the issues.<br /><br />"The ''feel good factor'' on the industry and with the targets to be met, has forced the government to dispose off some of its holding in several oil, power and banks sectors to the public, which will result in a crunch for many small investors and so the other series of issues is most likely to be affected," said Manoj Keshwani, an investor from Chandigarh.<br /><br />The government source said that the target to mop up to Rs 14,000 crore through disinvestment would finally turn into reality.GAIL, India''s biggest open offer till date, with an issue size of Rs 1,564 crore got fully subscribed on the first day itself leaving the official confident to raise Rs 10,000 crore. <br /><br /><formid=367815><br /><br /></formid=367815></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />To add to the long list, ICICI has now joint the bandwagon and has announced that it will sell equity in April to raise about Rs 3,500 crore through 117 million shares.<br /><br />Stock analysts say that if the public back out from investing, the private companies will take the help of the foreign institution investors and the local institutions will be the hour of the day.<br /><br />However, bankers are confident that due to over subscription, many of the investors will get their deposits refunded with 21 days giving them enough time to apply for private issues, said a bank manager. <br /><br />Vikas Arora, cluster head (Chandigarh) of IDBI Bank said that for investors who apply for about 100 shares, usually get only 50 or less because of the huge demand and the rest will be refunded and can be reinvested.<br /><br /><formid=367815></formid=367815></div> </div>