Stocks may face selling pressure after lock-in expiry

Shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) declined marginally on Monday by around 0.30% at the exchanges. However, the decline wasn’t very high given the fact the 20% or 1265 million of the company’s outstanding equity became eligible for trading since the lock-in period ended.

The shares of India’s largest insurer declined 0.26% on BSE and 0.30% on NSE, to close at Rs 606. The stock has already fallen nearly 31% from its listing price of Rs 875.25, and declined 36% from its issue price of Rs 949. It has declined about 8.82% in a year. The shares of LIC were subdued because its numbers declared recently did not enthuse many investors. The net premium declined 19% year-on-year to Rs 1.07 trillion in the second quarter ended September. The profit after tax for the quarter stood at Rs 7,930 crore.

“Small and mid-cap companies would face the challenge of selling pressure owing to their comparatively lower market capitalization, however, large caps will not be impacted so much,” said Deven Choksey, promoter and MD of DRChoksey FinServ. However, this cannot be generalized and has to be seen subjectively for respective companies, he added.

The question of whether shareholders and promoters will exit their holdings in these stocks remains a factor of the performance of the companies since listing, said market experts.

“If they have performed well and their share prices are rising or steady at a higher level then nobody would be in a hurry to exit, only those who are desperate to get cash would sort of do that,” said a market expert on condition of anonymity. The shareholders of companies performing well get a leeway to exit at any time, the person said.