Asian Paints Shares Trade Lower Post Akzo Nobel-JSW Paints Deal

Shares of Asian Paints Ltd. traded lower on Thursday after the company offloaded its entire stake in Akzo Nobel India Ltd. in a large trade on Wednesday.

The transaction accounted for 4.42% of the company’s outstanding equity, with 20.1 lakh shares exchanged at an average price of Rs 3,651 apiece, according to an exchange filing. This takes the cumulative value of stake offloaded to Rs 734 crore.

The development comes weeks after the promoters of Akzo Nobel signed a share purchase agreement with JSW Paints. That deal was announced at Rs 2,762.05 per share, marking a 16% discount to Akzo Nobel's market price at the time, and valued the overall transaction at Rs 9,400 crore.

Shares of Asian Paints fell as much as 0.38% to Rs 2,489.40 apiece. They pared losses to trade 0.30% lower at Rs 2,491.50 apiece, as of 9:30 a.m. This compares to a 0.14% decline in the NSE Nifty 50.

The stock has fallen 16.80% in the last 12 months and fallen 9.27% year-to-date. Total traded volume so far in the day stood at 1.35 times its 30-day average. The relative strength index was at 62.19.

Out of 39 analysts tracking the company, nine maintain a 'buy' rating, 10 recommend a 'hold' and 20 suggest 'sell', according to Bloomberg data. The average 12-month consensus price target implies a downside of 6.1%.