Elder Pharma hits 52-week low on pledge share issue; down 40% in May

NEW DELHI: Elder Pharmaceuticals Ltd slipped for the fourth consecutive day on Monday to hit its 52-week low of Rs 224.60 on concerns of pledged shares, say analysts.

"Elder Pharma has been falling on concerns of pledged share concerns by promoters. As per the latest shareholding data, nearly 80% of their holding is pledged," said A K Prabhakar, Senior Vice President - Equity Research at Anand Rathi.

At 12:30 p.m., the stock was locked in lower circuit at Rs 224.60, down 10 per cent. It has wiped out nearly 40 per cent of investors wealth so far in the month of May, as of data collected on May 13, 2013.

Last week, Ratnakar Bank offloaded 1.4 lakh shares of the domestic pharma player for nearly Rs 5 crore. According to information available with the stock exchanges, the Maharashtra-based bank purchased shares on an average price of Rs 320.65 valuing the transaction to Rs 4.48 crore, said a PTI report.

In a separate bulk deal, foreign fund house Morgan Stanley Mauritius Company Ltd shed 2,93,008 shares of IT training major Aptech Ltd in a transaction worth Rs 1.7 crore, the report added.

For the quarter ended March 2013 (Q4FY13), from the universe of 3,861 companies that have declared their shareholding, promoters of 788 companies have pledged part of their holdings, Edelweiss said in a report.

“The value of pledged holding stands at Rs 1.40 trillion during the quarter in comparison to Rs 1.43 trillion in Q3FY13. The pledged value is 2.09 per cent of India’s market cap,” added the report.