The auction of NTPC shares saw good response from investors in the initial hours of sale today with bids coming in for over 30.51 crore shares in the first three hours of trade.

The government is offloading 78.32 crore shares or 9.5 per cent stake in the state-owned power major NTPC and has fixed a floor price of Rs 145 a share.

The stake sale would fetch over Rs 11,300 crore to the exchequer, making it the biggest disinvestment so far this fiscal.

On the BSE, shares of NTPC opened on a weak note and fell by 2.01 per cent in the opening trade to Rs 149 apiece.

The one-day auction began this morning at 0915 hrs on the stock exchanges and had attracted bids for 30.51 crore shares by 1215 hrs against an offer of 78.32 crore shares.

The indicative price, which is the weighted average price of all valid bids, was Rs 145.35 a share, while the stock was quoting at Rs 147.95, down 2.86 per cent over previous close on the BSE.

During the trade, NTPC scrip fell to a low of Rs 149.10 on the BSE.

Bids for over 17.82 crore shares were with 100 per cent margin, that means if the bidder decides to withdraw later, they can do so. Bids that came in with zero per cent margin were over 12.68 crore, as per data available with stock exchanges.

The scrip has slid nearly 4 per cent since Tuesday, when the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) decided on the floor price of the stake auction.

Government holds 84.50 per cent stake in NTPC. After stake sale, its holding will come down to 75 per cent.

Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Equities, Kotak Securities and SBI Cap Securities are acting as the merchant bankers for the stake sale.

Disinvestment Secretary Ravi Mathur had earlier said the government would be able to raise around Rs 12,000 crore from the NTPC stake sale.

So far this fiscal the government has already raised over Rs 10,000 crore through stake sale in PSUs like Oil India, NMDC and HCL.