Shares of five state-owned lenders, namely Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), UCO Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) and Bank of Maharashtra (BoM), recorded double-digit gains during the last leg of Tuesday's trading session.
Central Bank soared 20 per cent to hit its upper circuit level of Rs 56.24. IOB shares settled 19.56 per cent higher at Rs 54.34. UCO Bank, PSB and BoM shares jumped 18 per cent, 14.67 per cent and 12.26 per cent, respectively.
These PSU stocks picked up pace after CNBC-TV18 reported that the Centre approved a fundraising plan via the qualified institutional placement (QIP) route. The fundraising will be executed in small tranches beginning the fourth quarter of the current financial year of 2025 (Q4 FY25), the report added.
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has also been mandated to divest stakes in these PSBs through the offer for sale (OFS) route, it further mentioned. However, Business Today could not verify this information at the time of publishing this story.
As per BSE data available for December 2024 quarter, the government held a 79.6 per cent stake in BoM, 98.25 per cent stake in PSB, 96.38 per cent stake in IOB, 95.39 per cent stake in UCO Bank and 93.08 per cent stake in Central Bank.
The entire public sector bank (PSB) basket settled in the green today as sub-index Nifty PSU Bank moved up 4.20 per cent to 6,145.
To recall, the government extended the deadline for meeting minimum public shareholding (MPS) norm for central public sector enterprises and public sector financial institutions till August 2026.
Out of 12 PSBs, the above-mentioned five are yet to comply with the MPS rule. As per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), all listed companies must maintain an MPS of 25 per cent.