Yes Bank share price falls as RBI-mandated lock-in ends

Yes Bank shares saw a sharp fall on Monday, as the Reserve Bank-mandated three-year lock-in period for individual investors and exchange-traded funds ends.

Exchange-traded funds are also likely to press the exit button. Analysts quoted by Moneycontrol say as much as 1.35 billion shares are with individual investors — including retail, HNIs and NRIs — under the lock-in and another 67 million with exchange-traded funds, and that all these are likely to exit, if not at one go, over the next few weeks.

The analysts already expected the distress on the bank counter on Monday as they expect investors, primarily the nine banks led by State Bank, which picked up almost 49 per cent of its stocks in March 2020 for Rs 10 per share -- at a premium of Rs 8 on the face value as part of the RBI bailout, making an exit.

As of December 2022, SBI held 26.14 per cent or 6,050 million shares of Yes Bank; HDFC & HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank held 1,000 million shares each; Axis Bank 600 million; Kotak Mahindra Bank 500 million; Federal Bank and Bandhan Bank 300 million each and IDFC First Bank held 250 million shares before it went belly up on March 5, 2020. These eight banks held originally almost 11 billion shares in the bank.