Around 1.01 percent stake has been acquired in the major House Development Finance by the People’s Bank of China which indicates one of the vital developments for the financial sector in India
As per the data provided by the company at the BSE, during the quarter ended March near about 17.5 million shares have been acquired by the central bank of China in HDFC.
The development took place at a crucial time, when the prices of the share lender had plunged. During the past month because of the coronavirus crisis, prices of stock have been fluctuating very much and this has led to the fall of HDFC over 25 percent.
Around 70.88 percent stake belongs to the foreign portfolio followed by 3.23 percent shareholding by the Government of Singapore.
Currently, on the BSE the cost of per shares of HDFC is Rs 1,701.95
People’s Bank of China which is the Central Bank of China has been holding around 1.01 percent stake in housing finance major Housing Development Corporation Limited. In the latest quarterly shareholding pattern of the company the figure was reflected and disclosed to the stock exchanges.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Keki Mistry who is the Ceo of HDFC stated that PBOC is one of the existing shareholders and had owned around 0.8 percent stake earlier in the company.
After the observation of the stakes hitting the 1 percent regulatory threshold the disclosure was made. Further this 1.01 percent stake would translate into the shares of around 1.75 crore.
Deepak Parekh who is the HDFC chairman told CNBC-TV18 that there is nothing much unusual about all the PBOC holding as several other sovereign wealth funds also hold stake in the firm.
Parkeh added to his comments that it is very common for central banks to purchase shares for their respective countries on behalf of the sovereign wealth funds. the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, SAMA which is the central bank of the country, also owns HDFC stock which has been purchased on behalf of their sovereign wealth fund.
Between the first week of February and the last week of March, it was observed that the price of HDFC’s share plunged around 41 percent. The last traded price of the share was Rs 1,701.25.
In the year 2014, during the Eurozone debt crisis it was observed that PBOC had picked up stakes in many high profile Italian companies. In the year 2007, it had picked up the stake in BG Group which is the third-largest gas producer in Britain with 0.46 percent.