It's raining money! A deluge of retail investors hits the primary market

The current year is seeing a record number of retail investors entering the stock markets every month and the effect is clearly visible in the primary markets wherein four public issues are concurrently vying for attention and retail investors are not disappointing any of the issuers.

Four initial public offers (IPOs) -- Windlas Biotech, Exxaro Tiles, Krsnaa Diagnostics and Devyani International - are open for subscription and all four offerings have seen huge oversubscription in the retail category even as the other categories are registering a relatively subdued response.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) data shows the retail portion of three IPOs -- Exxaro Tiles, Krsnaa Diagnostics and Devyani International - have all been subscribed more than 20 times each till Thursday, even as one more day of bidding still remains.

Also read: IPO update: Windlas Biotech, Exxaro Tiles fully subscribed within hours of opening

Interestingly, bulk of the bids pour in on the last day of the IPOs and if the trend of the first two days is anything to go by, all the issues are going to undoubtedly witness huge oversubscriptions in the retail segment.

The retail segment of Devyani International has been subscribed nearly 23 times, with bids received for 46.7 crore equity shares against 2.04 crore equity shares on offer in the price band of Rs 86 to Rs 90. Assuming that all bids have come at the upper end, retail investors have put in bids worth a whopping Rs 4,205 crore.

Also read: IPO Update: Devyani International IPO subscribed 6.41 times on Day 2

The institutional and non-institutional portions of the IPO have been subscribed 1.32 times and 6.37 times, respectively, even as the overall issue was subscribed 6.61 times till 5pm on Thursday.

In the case of Krsnaa Diagnostics, retail investors have put in bids worth Rs 2,600 crore, with the segment getting subscribed 21.74 times till Thursday. Retail investors have bid for 2.72 crore shares against 12.51 lakh shares on offer in the price band of Rs 933 to Rs 954.

Also read: Nykaa next in line; files DRHP for IPO

Further, while the portion reserved for qualified institutional buyers is yet to be fully subscribed, the segment reserved for non-institutional investors was subscribed 4.71 times till Thursday.

Meanwhile, Exxaro Tiles also saw a huge response from retail investors with the portion getting subscribed 21.10 times. The cumulative worth of retail bids was pegged at Rs 1,332 crore.  

The retail segment of the fourth IPO currently open - Windlas Biotech - was subscribed 13.40 times with bids received for 4.14 crore shares as against 30.9 lakh shares on offer in the price band of Rs 448 to Rs 460. The cumulative worth of retail bids was nearly Rs 1,904 crore.

Also read: Six more firms get SEBI's nod to float IPO