The Hindu Business Line : Retail investors get fewer ONGC shares

AS the ONGC allotment muddle continues, it is now the turn of the retail investor to bear the brunt. After over-allotment of ONGC shares to select high net-worth investors by MCS, several retail investors have received fewer shares than they had applied for.

Retail investors Business Line spoke to said they were expecting full allotment of shares but their demat accounts showed fewer shares credited to their account.

Mr T.M. Vishwanth, a retail investor told Business Line that he applied for 70 shares (the maximum number of shares under retail category) and he was allotted only 47 shares. "I was expecting full allotment but I'm surprised with the number of shares credited to my demat account." However, he said this could be due to the mistake by the registrar in the allotment process.

Another investor said he had applied for 30 shares but received only 20. He said he had expected full allotment as retail portion was reportedly undersubcrbed.

Meawnhile, several high net-worth investors were yet to receive shares till late evening.

Officials of MCS were not available for comments.

After the closure of ONGC public offer, the Disinvestment Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, had said "about 7.6 lakh retail investors had submitted bids and each will get what he had asked for." The confirmed allotment was due to the under subscription of the retail portion. Compared to the reservation of 25 per cent of the issue size for retail investors, this category received bids for only 17 per cent.

There were other retail investors who were disappointed over the allotment process, as they neither received full allotment nor the refund orders.

Several brokers, who are also depository participants, said several of their high net-worth investors have yet to receive shares in their demat account till late evening.

"Investors were promised that the shares will be credited to their account by Wednesday evening but even till Friday the shares have not come," said a broker.

Despite the fiasco for the second time, the stock price of ONGC gained in today's trading and closed at Rs 859.85, up 3.47 per cent on the BSE. The rise was mainly on expectation that around 5-6 lakh shares are likely to be auctioned (for short fall for Monday's trading) next week. Today was the settlement day for trades done on Monday.

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