Oil prices rise on Middle East Worries

Oil prices rose on Friday, as tumult in the Middle East underpinned the market. The WTI for November delivery on Friday reportedly increased USD 0.85 to settle at USD 51.45 a barrel on the New York Exchange, while Brent crude for December delivery rose USD 0.92 to close at USD 57.17 per barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had decided to decertify Iran’s compliance with the landmark deal reached in 2015.

Analysts are of view that disorder in the Middle East and possible US action on the Iran nuclear deal heightened the oil prices, since traders are under geopolitical worries. On the data front, the number of rigs operating in U.S oil fields fell by 5 to a total of 743 rigs this week.

General Insurance Corp IPO fully subscribed on strong QIB demand

The Rs 11,370 crore mega initial public offer of General Insurance Corpn of India (GIC Re) got fully subscribed on Day third day of the bidding process on Friday under strong demand from qualified institutional buyers (QIB).

The issue received bids for 12,61,97,408 shares, which were 1.01 times the issue size of 12,47,00,000 shares on offer after lunch hours. The quota for QIB was subscribed 1.79 times, retail 32%, while non-institutional investor witnessed 5% subscription.

The company’s gross premium has grown at CAGR of 24.84% in FY15-17. On consolidated basis, the company’s gross premium has grown at a CAGR of 48.65% FY1517.

General Insurance Corpn of India’s IPO is India’s third biggest after Coal India Ltd’s Rs 15,200 crore and Reliance Power Ltd’s Rs 11,700 crore issues in 2008.

Reliance Nippon IPO sets price band, seeks to garner Rs1,542 crore

Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Ltd (RNAM), comes up with an initial public offering (IPO), to raise up to Rs. 1,542 crore with the company, on Thursday.  The price band set of Rs. 247-252 per share. RNAM is a subsidiary of Reliance Capital, with Japan’s Nippon Life Insurance Co, as its strategic partner.

The offer will run from 25 to 27 October, involves a 10 percent stake sale in the company. Its two main shareholders viz. Nippon Life will sell up to 2.55 million and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Capital will sell up to 1.12 million shares, each.

JM Financial, Citic CLSA, Nomura and Axis Capital are the main banks managing the offer, while the book runners namely - Edelweiss, IIFL Holdings, SBI Capital Markets and Yes Securities.