Pledged promoter holdings down in March quarter

Percentage down to 9 from 9.3 in December

Pledged promoter holding in BSE-500 stocks have gone down marginally during the quarter ended March 31, 2017, compared with the quarter ended December 31, 2016, according to a recent report published by Kotak Institutional Equities Research.

The percentage of promoter pledged holding decreased to 9% in March 2017, compared with 9.3% in December 2016.

Promoters have pledged shares worth Rs 1.8 lakh crore, which is about 1.6% of the total BSE-500 Index's market capitalisation in March 2017, according to the report.

Promoters of 135 companies pledged their holdings among BSE-500 Index stocks, with seven companies, having more than 90% of their promoter holdings pledged.

The promoters who have pledged more than 95% of their holdings include Bajaj Hindustan, CG Power and Industrial, Reliance Defence, Suzlon Energy, Videocon Industries and Rattanindia Power, the report states.

The highest increase in the promoters pledged holdings was witnessed in Granules India, KPIT Technologies, JBF Industries, Advance Enzyme, CG Power and Industrial while, promoters who decreased their pledged holdings during the quarter include Future Consumer, Rain Industries, Reliance Power, Future Retail and Adani Power, according to the report.

Fresh promoter pledges were witnessed in Advance Enzyme, Eros International and S H Kelkar, while promoters who revoked their entire pledged holdings include Rain Industries and UPL.

Companies in Nifty 50 with more than 5% of pledged promoter holdings include Adani Ports & SEZ (29.6%), Asian Paints (14.6%), Indiabulls Housing Finance (12.5%), Tata Motors (5.9%), Tata Steel (5.7%) and Zee Entertainment (39.3%), the report adds.