style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: justify; ">The auction of the Government's 5% stake in ONGC evoked a lukewarm response from investors, with bids totaling only two-thirds of the total shares on offer. The Government owns 74.14% stake in ONGC.

The auction received bids for 29.22 crore shares worth ~Rs 85bn as against the proposed offer of 42.77 crores shares, which was supposed to fetch over Rs 120bn.

The Government had proposed to sell the ONGC shares through the auction route at a floor price of Rs 290 a piece.

The bids were mostly in the price range of Rs 290-293 per share, which commenced at 9.15 am and closed at 3.30 pm today. 

The Centre has the right to either conclude the sale to the extent of subscription or cancel the same, according to reports.  

The ONGC shares would be allocated on ‘price-priority’ basis, meaning the bidders at the highest price would be allotted shares first.

ONGC shares were trading close to the offer price in the secondary market and even slipped below the floor price in the afternoon trade. 

The BSE was the designated exchange for the proposed share sale, but orders were placed on both the BSE and NSE.

One news channel said that state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) had stepped in to buy the remainder of the ONGC shares, but another channel denied the report.

Separately, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) said that it was still reconciling bids with the funds received.

ONGC shares ended the day down 1.7% at Rs 288.20 on BSE.