Nalco shares unfazed by deferral of divestment date

Shares state-run National Aluminium Company (Nalco) were unmoved on Thursday, after the government decided to push back the decision on divesting its stake in the company to the January-March quarter.    

"It is not happening now. It will happen in the next quarter...After third quarter results we will decide," minister of state for mines Dinshaw Patel said, after a panel of ministers met to discuss the share sale. Some media reports had said the issue could be launched as early as this week.

The government plans to sell a 12.15 percent share sale in the company to restart a stalled divestment programme that is crucial to plug the government's widening fiscal deficit. At current market price, the Nalco sale could raise as much as USD 267 million.

The finance ministry's attempts to speed up disinvestment have not met with much success seven months into the year but the government is still hopeful of meeting the target. New Delhi aims to raise Rs 30,000 crore through share sale in state-run companies in the current fiscal year, that ends next March, but has thus far drawn a blank as weak market conditions have deterred public issues or auctions.

(With inputs from Reuters)