One IPO Cut Your Wealth in Half. Today, Six More Listed: Most Made Money, Two Didn't

Annu Projects Share Price: Annu Projects investors have lost over 50% of their money in two weeks. Today six IPOs listed — Karamtara, LCC, Rentomojo gained, ARCIL and Manipal Payment didn’t.

By North Desk Bureau

If you got allotted shares in Annu Projects two weeks ago, you’re not just underwater — you’re down to less than half of what you put in. On Thursday, six more mainboard IPOs debuted on Dalal Street, and the contrast couldn’t be sharper: four delivered solid listing gains, while two — Asset Reconstruction Company (India) and Manipal Payment and Identity Solutions — barely moved or slipped into the red.

The one that’s still sinking: Annu Projects

Annu Projects, an EPC (engineering-procurement-construction) firm that builds telecom, sewerage and gas pipeline infrastructure for clients including Indraprastha Gas, Gujarat Gas and GAIL India, listed on the NSE on September 2 at ₹72 — a 27.27% discount to its ₹99 issue price, even though the IPO had been subscribed nearly three times over.

It hasn’t found a floor since. As of today, September 17, Annu Projects was trading at ₹48.86, down roughly 7% on the day alone from yesterday’s close of ₹52.67, and down more than 30% over the past month.

Run the actual math on what that means for someone who got allotted the minimum retail lot: 151 shares at the ₹99 issue price cost ₹14,949. At today’s price, that same lot is worth approximately ₹7,378 — a loss of nearly ₹7,600, or just over 50% of the original investment, in a little over two weeks. For an investor who considered themselves lucky to get an allotment in a stock subscribed three times over, the allotment turned out to be the start of the loss, not a win.

ALSO: NSE IPO Opens Amid Hype, But Falling GMP Raises Questions Over Listing Gains

Thursday’s listings: a very different picture, mostly

Against that backdrop, six mainboard companies made their stock market debut today — and the results show almost the opposite pattern.

Karamtara Engineering listed at ₹320 on both the NSE and BSE, a 25.98% premium over its ₹254 issue price — one of the strongest debuts of the day.

LCC Projects listed at ₹189 on the NSE, a 29.45% premium over its ₹146 issue price, making it the best-performing listing among today’s six.

Rentomojo, the furniture-and-appliance rental platform that drew the strongest pre-listing grey market buzz of the week, debuted at ₹482.45 on the NSE — a 19.42% premium over its ₹404 issue price.

Steamhouse India, an industrial steam and nitrogen infrastructure supplier, listed at a 14.8% premium over its ₹81 issue price — debuting at approximately ₹93 — a more modest gain than its grey-market chatter had suggested through the subscription window (GMP had implied a gain closer to 25%), but a solid listing nonetheless, especially given its comparatively soft final subscription of 2.5 times overall.

Asset Reconstruction Company (India), or ARCIL — India’s oldest asset reconstruction company, which acquires and resolves stressed loans for banks — listed essentially flat at its ₹139 upper price band, delivering no meaningful listing gain despite the issue drawing bids for over 74 crore shares against roughly 3.7 crore on offer. Its GMP had hovered around 10 per cent.

Manipal Payment and Identity Solutions, which makes payment cards and secure identity products for banks and government agencies under the Manipal Group, was the day’s weakest debut — listing at ₹330 on the NSE, a 2.65% discount to its ₹339 issue price. Its subscription numbers through the bidding window had also been comparatively muted, with overall demand at just 1.42 times.

Annu Projects Share Price: What the contrast actually shows

Annu Projects Share Price: It would be easy to read today’s results as proof that IPOs are back in favour after Annu Projects and other recent disappointments like Skyways Air Services. That’s only half the picture. Even within a single day’s batch of listings, strong grey-market chatter and heavy subscription didn’t guarantee anything — ARCIL drew far higher subscription than Manipal Payment and still listed flat, while Manipal Payment’s soft subscription numbers lined up with its eventual discount.

Steamhouse is actually a second example (alongside ARCIL) of the gap between GMP expectations and actual listing outcome, just on the positive side rather than negative: its grey market had signalled ~25% and it delivered ~15%, still a gain, just short of what the hype implied.

The bigger point sits in the gap between today’s listings and Annu Projects. A stock’s opening-day performance is only the first data point, not the last one. Annu Projects itself listed at a discount on day one and has continued sliding for two weeks since — a reminder that even IPOs that clear listing day without disaster can still lose money for investors well after the news cycle has moved on to the next batch of debuts.

ALSO: The Great IPO Rush of September: Why 11 Companies Are Racing to List in One Week

ALSO: One IPO’s GMP Is Soaring, Another Is Sinking Money — And More Are Lining Up This Week

Follow North Desk on WhatsApp for the latest from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb7ccdxJENy2H87DBG3E