India's biggest IPO yet

The Indian capital market turned black into gold this week. The initial public offer of Coal India was set to be the largest in Indian history from the moment it opened on Monday, but even the biggest bulls in the ring were left stunned by the money it mined by the time it closed on Thursday: a mobilization of Rs 2.36 lakh crore, over 15 times the target of Rs 15,500 crore. It’s a mind-boggling testimony to the amount of money floating around in Indian markets,the hunger for good stocks, and the euphoria about the India story—also reflected in the sensex closing up 388 points at 20,261 on Thursday. The success of Coal India also sets an impressive benchmark for SAIL, Hindustan Copper and Power Grid which are lined up to tap the capital markets in coming months. It can be a little hard to get one’s head around all the zeroes in a figure like Rs 2.36 lakh crore (or $53 billion). So here’s some perspective. The amount that flowed into the offering by the ‘black diamond’ in four days is more than last year’s GDP of about 140 countries. It is more than Sri Lanka’s GDP ($42 billion) and four times that of Nepal ($12.5 billion), according to data on the World Bank’s website. It’s also almost 10 times India’s health budget of Rs 25,154 crore for 2010-11, nearly five times our education budget of Rs 49,904 crore and almost one-fourth the size of the Union budget itself. Here’s another fascinating comparison:FIIs have pumped in a record Rs 1.08 lakh crore into Indian stocks this year. For the Coal India IPO alone, they have put in bids worth Rs 1.20 lakh crore.