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Divesting PSUs should aim at local market over GDRs
Stock brokers have demanded that the nine gems of public sector divesting their holding should offload their shares in the Indian market instead of adopting the GDR route. The securities industry summit concluded that if the PSUs divested locally it would boost the market sentiment. He said if the public sector headed for the global depository ratio route it would dent the market movement. S C Saxena, financial consultant, MTNL said it had to be seen whether the PSUs taking the GDR route found lucrative bids or not. Certain PSUs had faced bad response to the GDR issues, whereas others had fared better. He cited the case of MTNL which had been lapped up in the GDR market. Brokers said if there was an attempt to improve market sentiment then the divesting PSUs would have to absorb some losses. Shitin Desai of DSP Merril Lynch said the PSUs belonged to the public and the demand to divest shares in India amounted to giving to the public at a little lesser profit. He said the government should not have no apprehensions about it. (Business Aaj Tak)