Steel Authority of India's offer-for-sale has been fully subscribed.

As against an offer for 24.03 crore shares, the auction received bids for 24.13 crore SAIL shares.

Till around 4.25 p.m, the figures on the BSE showed only 97.9 per cent at the end of trading hours. But around 5 p.m, the data suddenly changed to show that the auction got bids for 100.4 per cent.

Analysts say that it reminded them of the ONGC issue, which was also not subscribed fully during the trading hours on that day. The stock exchange Web sites had stopped updating the bids 10 minutes before the scheduled close on that day of ONGC public issue. The Government had then said the system was jammed because of a rush of last-minute bids. State-run Life Insurance Corporation of India bought 4.4 per cent stake in ONGC through that auction.

SAIL indicative price

At an indicative price of Rs 63.07, the rate at which maximum number of shares were tendered, the Government will raise about Rs 1,514.5 crore through the disinvestment in SAIL.

The Government had targeted to divest 5.82 per cent through the offer-for-sale.

The SAIL stock, meanwhile, ended down 0.78 per cent at Rs 63.40 on the BSE.

It may be recalled that the Government's original plan was to dilute 10.82 per cent stake in the company and mop up about Rs 4,000 crore.

But the consistent fall in the share price forced the Centre to scale down both the price as well as stake sale.

SAIL stock has lost 8 per cent in the last one week and over 30 per cent since March last year.

The Union Government currently holds 85.82 per cent stake in the company.

For the third quarter ended December 31, 2012, SAIL reported a 23 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 484 crore from the year-ago period mainly due to lower net sales realisation amid subdued market conditions.

The steel major has a cash balance of over Rs 6,000 crore.

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