MCX shares clock 26% first-day gain

In a stellar stock market debut, the country's largest commodity exchange MCX on Friday listed with a 34 per cent premium over its IPO price and finally settled 26 per cent higher at Rs 1,297.05 a share on the BSE.

Becoming the country's first ever exchange to get listed in the stock market, MCX on Friday attracted robust investor demand for its shares and saw its stock listing at Rs 1,387 per share - 34 per cent above its Initial Public Offer (IPO) price of Rs 1,032.

After some profit booking at higher levels, the stock settled 25.7 per cent higher at Rs 1,297.05 at the BSE.

The company last month came out with its IPO, where in it got bids worth Rs 36,000 crore for the shares under offer to raise about Rs 650 crore.

In the pre-open bidding, the shares attracted a premium of over 40 per cent and the price touched a high of Rs 1,450.

Based on a new price-discovery mechanism, followed for the first time in MCX listing, the shares opened the normal trade at the BSE at Rs 1,387 - a premium of 34 per cent.

On the NSE, the shares ended at Rs 1,294, up 25.39 per cent. The company had offered to list its shares on the BSE only, but NSE proactively decided to add MCX shares to its list of securities admitted for trade.

After a listing ceremony at BSE, MCX said it will consider listing on the NSE as well at an appropriate time.

"NSE is already the shareholder of MCX and listing on NSE will be a gradual step," MCX Vice-Chairman Jignesh Shah said.

In terms of volume, over 60.18 lakh shares of the company were traded on the BSE, while more than 79.41 lakh shares changed hands on the NSE during the day.

After coming out with first IPO of 2012, MCX also became the first company to list under the new Sebi rules requiring a pre-open bidding in the first-day trade of IPO stocks.

As per new guidelines, announced by Sebi on January 20, a pre-open bidding is conducted for one hour between 9 am to 10 am, pursuant to which an equilibrium price is discovered. A price band 20 per cent is then imposed for listing-day trade.

These measures were adopted by Sebi to check wild price fluctuations in the listing day trade, as many stocks in the past have seen movements of even 100 per cent or more on their first day of trade.

Experts believe that the robust demand for MCX IPO and an impressive listing could lead to other exchanges also getting listed and help revive the overall primary market.