At 09:16 am, around 4.14 million shares, representing 4.4 per cent of Sobha's total equity, changed hands on the BSE. The name of the buyers and sellers were not ascertained immediately.
As per March 2019 shareholding pattern, mutual funds held 12.97 per cent stake in Sobha. Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund A/C Franklin India Focused Equity Fund held 7.46 per cent stake, while L&T Mutual Fund Trustee Limited-L&T Emerging Businesses Fund and SBI Magnum Multicap Fund held 3.7 per cent and 1.57 per cent respectively.
Among the foreign portfolio investors, Schroder International Selection Fund Emerging Asia held 5.54 per cent stake in the company, the data shows.
In the past three months, the stock has outperformed the market with 22 per cent gain, as compared to a 4 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex till Thursday. It touched a 52-week high of Rs 585 on June 13, 2019.
Karvy Stock Broking initiated coverage on Sobha with 12 month target price of Rs 632 per share. The brokerage firm expects Sobha to be a major beneficiary of post RERA scenario which has resulted in consolidation in real estate industry wherein reputed players backed by execution track record stand to gain market share from unorganized players. The current liquidity crisis will strengthen the position of large developers having minimal dependency on external funding for project completion.
At 10:37 am, the stock was trading 7 per cent lower at Rs 523 on the BSE, against a 0.47 per cent decline in the benchmark index. A combined 5.33 million shares have changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE so far.