Morgan Stanley off-loads Rs 1250 crore shares in Indian bourses

Amidst the buzz of possible merger and sell off, the US' second-largest securities firm Morgan Stanley, on Wednesday, off loaded shares worth about Rs 1250 crore in the Indian bourses.

According to the data available on the BSE and NSE website, Morgan Stanley and its subsidiaries sold their shares in 42 firms including Reliance Capital, IFCI Ltd, , Voltas Ltd, K S Oil, Megasoft, GTL Ltd and others.

The stakes were sold on both the BSE and the NSE. The sale included stakes in other companies such as Indiabulls Real Estate, Anant Raj Industries, Goldstone Technologies, JM Financial, Jaiprakash Associates, NIIT Ltd and Jai Corp.

The sale follows tumultuous financial market conditions in the US where a deepening credit and liquidity crisis coupled with the collapse of the housing market is casting doubts over the survival of some of America's iconic investment banking firms.

Earlier in the week, the storied Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, while Merrill Lynch was taken over by Bank of America. The Federal Reserve then stepped in to bail out American International Group, one of the world's largest insurers.

The survival of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs is being increasingly called into question. On Wednesday, Morgan sold Rs 870 crore worth of shares.

Following the crisis, Morgan Stanley is in talks with number of companies, including China Investment Corp and Wachovia Corp, for selling off its majority stake or possible merger.