Budget 2012: IPO e-push, but will it pull investors?

The initial public offer (IPO) market may have been in the dumps last year but the Budget has proposed measures to give it a push to reach more retail investors in small towns.
The government is making it mandatory for companies to issue IPOs of “(Rs) 10 crore and above in electronic form through a nationwide broker network of stock exchanges”.
But if the recent ONGC auction and the lukewarm response to the Wipro trust’s offer is any indication, pushing through IPOs wouldn’t be a cakewalk.
In all, IPO approvals of 11 companies that were planning to mobilize Rs 4,771 crore have already expired in 2012.
Incidentally, 29 companies put off their IPOs worth Rs 32,400 crore in 2011. A vast number of IPOs are now trading at a steep discount to their offer prices.
“The problem is not about technology. There should be a positive momentum in the markets,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head (research), SMC Global Securities. G Chokkalingam, CIO, Centrum Wealth Management, said, “Also, the secondary market needs to improve. But there will be a revival.”
Budget 2012
Budget News 2012