All major participants - foreign portfolio investors, mutual funds and retail investors - seemed to have bought GMM Pfaudler shares that were offered through offer-for-sale by its promoters in September.

US-based Pfaudler Inc, Millars Machinery Company Private Ltd and Urmi Patel had sold 28 per cent through OFS at a floor price of ₹3,500, a steep discount of then prevailing price. The pricing has trigged a sharp fall in the stock that was hovering around ₹5,200.

The shares on Friday closed at ₹3,629 on the BSE.

Malabar Funds

According to the latest shareholding pattern available with the stock exchanges, a whopping 53,277 new retail investors entered the stock during the quarter. Their holding went up from 15.12 per cent (June quarter) to 18.52 per cent (September quarter). FPIs’ holding also zoomed to 6.61 per cent (September end) from 0.87 per cent (June end). While at the end of June quarter there were 27 FPIs, the number increased to 58 at the end of September. Malabar Select Fund and Malabar India Fund hold 1.18 per cent and 1.06 per cent respectively at the end of September quarter.

Similarly, mutual funds’ holding rose from 1.95 per cent to 6.02 per cent. Among the MFs, Nippon India Small Cap Fund and ICICI Prudential MultiCap Fund had bought 2.85 lakh shares and 2.5 lakh shares of the company. L&T Emerging Business Fund’s holding increased marginally to 1.37 per cent at the end of the September quarter from 1.11 per cent in June quarter-end.

The OFS, which followed the parent company's announcement to acquire majority stake -- 54 per cent -- in global business of the Pfaudler group from Pfaudler UK Limited, had generated a lot of noise among the market participants. According to media reports, the market regulator is currently looking into the stake sale, that was sold at a heavy discount, over allegations of insider trading involving short selling of the company’s shares.

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