Shares of Axis Bank advanced over 9% on Tuesday after investor sentiments got a boost on news reports that Bain Capital is acquiring an equity stake. “Bain Capital is in advanced talks with Axis Bank to invest between $750 million and $1 billion (Rs 4,800-6,400 crore), in what could be one of the largest private equity investments in the Indian banking sector,” The Economic Times reported. The stock of Axis Bank topped the volumes and was the biggest gainer on Sensex and Nifty.
Axis Bank shares hit the day’s high rising as much as 9.29% to Rs 529 on NSE in the intraday trade while it made a low of Rs 493.3. Axis Bank recorded heavy volumes today as more than 3.2 crore shares of Axis Bank were traded on both BSE and NSE out of which 3 crore shares on NSE alone. The total traded volume of Axis Bank shares on NSE was about 17% of the traded volumes of Nifty 50 stocks. “Bain’s proposed investment will come as a primary issuance of shares through a preferential allotment that will allow the PE fund to own up to 5% of Axis,” The Economic Times report added.
At the current market price of Rs 525 on BSE, Axis Bank has added about Rs 9,758.78 crore in its market capitalisation to Rs 1,25,881.06. As per the market capitalisation, Axis Bank stands at fifth place among all the listed banking stocks. Ahead of Axis Bank, there are three private sector lenders namely HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and India’s largest lender State Bank of India.
Meanwhile, Indian stock market which started on a weaker note today morning led by the pessimism over second-quarter earnings ahead of the Q2 results of India’s largest telecom company Bharti Airtel. BSE Sensex opened 11.23 points or 0.03% lower at 33,254.93 while NSE Nifty begun up 1.25 points or 0.01% up at 10364.9. The benchmark Sensex shuttled between 33,294.3 and 33,174.99 points till the afternoon trade.