After opening the day firm, share markets in India have continued the momentum and are trading comfortably above the dotted line. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note with stocks in the auto sector and stocks in the IT sectorl eading the gains, while stocks in the metal sector are trading in red.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 151 points (up 0.5%), and the NSE Nifty is trading, up by 40 points (up 0.4%). Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.1%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading down by 0.1%. The rupee is trading at 64.96 to the US$.

In news from the IPO space. Bandhan Bank is set to come out with its own initial public offering (IPO) by next week. The bank plans to raise over Rs 44.7 billion from its share offering beginning on 15 March 2018.

The Kolkata-based bank and its shareholders will be selling up to 119.3 million shares, or about 10% of the post-issue share capital of the bank, in a price range of Rs 370-375 each in the IPO.

The bank will sell up to 97.7 million new shares in the IPO. International Finance Corp, part of the World Bank Group, and IFC FIG will sell 21.6 million shares.

Bandhan Bank’s IPO will the largest by a local bank.

The bank is majority controlled by its holding company Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd (BFHL) which owns 89.7% of the stake. IFC and IFC FIG together hold 4.9% stake while Caladium Investment an affiliate of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fun GIC owns 4.99% stake. The IPO will ensure that BFHL’s stake falls to 40%. RBI timeline also stipulates that the holding company’s shareholding is cut further to 20% and 15% within 10 years and 12 years respectively.

The Kolkata based Bandhan Bank along with IDFC Bank received the final nod to start banking operations by RBI in 2015. One of the conditions of the license was public listing within three year which the bank will fulfil now. It started operations on August 23, 2015 and converted its microfinance business into a bank. As of September 2017, it had 864 branches in 33 states across the country.