India bourse plans IPO next year; Sensex ends down

The operator of India’s Bombay Stock Exchange, said yesterday it is likely to sell shares in an initial public offering (IPO) in the next financial year, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The IPO would take place in the middle of the fiscal year starting April 1, the BSE’s chief executive said.

The exchange, Asia’s oldest, has hired 14 banks to manage the planned IPO, the report said.

The BSE is India’s second-largest stock exchange by market share and its stakeholders include Deutsche Boerse and the Singapore Exchange as well as local brokerages.

Meanwhile, Indian stocks fell for a fourth day as industrial production rebounded and consumer-price inflation quickened last month, raising concern the nation’s central bank may hold off on an interest-rate cut next week.

The BSE India Sensitive Index, or Sensex, fell 0.2% to 19,355.26 at the close.

Consumer prices climbed 9.9% last month from a year earlier, a report showed. The Reserve Bank of India, which will review borrowing costs on December 18, has signalled it may reduce interest rates next quarter if inflation eases. Factory output in October recovered at the fastest pace in more than a year, exceeding estimates.

India’s rupee forwards strengthened a second day after a stronger-than-expected pick-up in factory output, and on bets the Federal Reserve will add to measures that boost the supply of dollars.

Industrial production climbed 8.2% in October from a year earlier, official data showed yesterday, compared with a 5.1% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Output had contracted 0.7% the previous month.

The currency fell 0.1% in the spot market to 54.32 per dollar in Mumbai, after gaining as much as 0.2 earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.