New Delhi: In a major development, the People's Bank of China (PBoC) has purchased 1.75 crore shares in the lending major Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC). The move is significant as it comes at a time when the world is fighting the deadly coronavirus, with the two top economic powers, US and China, being the worst affected.
Hours after a consignment of hydroxychloroquine (touted by Trump as cure for covid-19) from India arrived in the US, the shareholding pattern of HDFC disclosed to the BSE that the central bank of China has acquired nearly 1.75 crore shares in HDFC during the quarter ended March.
The development has come when HDFC's shares plunged 25% last month amid the brutal selloff in global markets on concerns about the spreading coronavirus pandemic. The stock is among the worst performers this year on India's 30-stock S&P BSE Sensex index.
Of late, HDFC has seen significant interest from institutional investors. For instance, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) increased its holding in HDFC Ltd to 4.67 percent from 4.21 percent in December quarter.
A report by Moneycontrol quoted HDFC's Vice Chairman and CEO Keki Mistry as saying that the PBOC has been an existing shareholder and had owned 0.8 percent in the company as of March 2019.
The disclosure has been made now since the stake has hit the 1 percent regulatory threshold, Mistry said. "They have been accumulating the shares over a year and are now holding 1.1 percent," he added.
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