NSDL Shares Fall After Debut; Book Profits?

Shares of National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL) ended lower on Monday, August 11, marking the first down day for the stock after listing last week. This, after the stock declined as much as 12% from its intraday highs, which would

have made it the fourth straight day of gains.

At the intraday high of ₹1,425, the stock had gained as much as 80% from its issue price of ₹800, within four trading sessions.

On its trading debut last Wednesday, NSDL had seen as many as 3.7 crore shares change hands, while Thursday's session had seen 5.1 crore shares change hands. Today's trading session saw 4.5 crore shares changing hands.

In an interaction with CNBC-TV18 after listing, the management of NSDL mentioned that their focus will be to increase market

share in the retail segment, and that both arms are presenting good growth opportunities on an individual basis.

With the kind of upmove seen in NSDL, should investors book profits? Here's what analysts had to say:

"At the IPO price, NSDL was definitely cheaper compared to CSDL but now it is expensive after the recent run-up. I think along with long investors shifting from CDSL to NSDL post listing, we have seen huge number of momentum trader getting in, which has pushed the stock higher. So, it will be ideal for IPO investors to book profits at current

levels and make a shift back to CDSL," Ambareesh Baliga, Market Expert told CNBC-TV18 on Monday.

Sunny Agarwal of SBI Securities also spoke to CNBC-TV18 and mentioned that one can definitely book profits in case they had a short-to-medium-term horizon on NSDL with the gains that they have made. However, for long-term investors, any potential decline could act as a good opportunity to accumulate the stock for the portfolio.

Shares of NSDL ended 1.8% lower on Monday at ₹1,276.5, close to its intraday low of

₹1,272.