Mastershare volumes, price soar on repurchase hopes

Our Markets Bureau

Mumbai, Nov 3: Investors’ interest in units of Mastershare, (UTI’s most popular scheme after Unit Scheme 1964 (US-64), gained momentum on Monday, which was reflected in both higher volumes and jump in the price. Mastershare, thus appeared standing tall amidst sliding stock prices, traders said.

This improved interest in Mastershare units followed The Financial Express report on Sunday which said UTI planned to delist the scheme and instead offer repurchase window early next year in line with its other schemes like Master Gain 92 and Master Plus 91 which is currently repurchased by UTI on Net Asset Value (NAV) basis.
On Monday, Mastershare prices jumped almost 5 per cent to close at Rs 9.70 (off the intra-day high of Rs 10) on The Stock Exhcange, Mumbai (BSE) which saw volumes too rise to around 76,372 units, against the earlier average of around 50,000 units in November.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Mastershare units closed almost same as on the BSE — at Rs 9.70, up 50 paise, but a sharply higher volume of 3.34 lakh share against an average volume of one to 1.5 lakh shares.

Said a dealer: “Despite around 25-per cent rise in the Sensex in the last 12 weeks, investors are still sceptical about the state of economy and the fate of stock prices, and if they get anywhere between 15-25-per cent returns in the next couple of months by investing in Mastershare units, it is a good and safe bet.”

The current NAV of Mastershare was not availaible as its books of accounts were closed for distribution of income warrant at 10 per cent per annum.