IRFC shares slip below the ₹100 mark for the first time since January 2024 as sell

IRFC shares slip below the ₹100 mark for the first time since January 2024 as sell-off extends The government still has to sell an additional 9.6% stake in IRFC in order to be compliant with the Minimum Public Shareholding norms. By Hormaz Fatakia Shares of Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC) Ltd. are down another 4% on Monday, March 2, in-line with the market sentiment and after the conclusion of its Offer For Sale (OFS), which received a tepid response. The stock made an intraday low of ₹96.05, falling below the mark of ₹100 per share for the first time since January 2024. Shares have declined in four out of the last five trading sessions. IRFC had announced that the government plans to sell up to 2% of its outstanding equity and a green shoe option to sell another 2% stake to comply with the minimum public shareholding (MPS) norms. However, the OFS received a subdued response, both from non-retail and retail investors, across the two days that it was open for last week. In a filing on Monday, the company has announced that the government stake has now declined to 84.6% from the 86.36% that they earlier held, meaning that the government could only manage to sell 1.7% out of the 2% equity sale planned originally, excluding the green shoe option. The government still has to sell an additional 9.6% stake in the company in order to be compliant with the Minimum Public Shareholding norms. In an interaction with CNBC-TV18 last week, IRFC's CMD Manoj Kumar Dubey said that they have already surpassed their disbursement and sanctions guidance and expect to end the year with sanctions ranging between ₹80,000 crore to ₹90,000 crore. Shares of IRFC are trading 4.8% lower on Monday at ₹98.58. The stock is down 57% from its all-time high of ₹229 that the stock had surged back in July 2024.