By Zubair Ahmed in Bombay

Bombay brokers are working overtime

According to an estimate, more than $10bn is likely to be in the pipeline in 2004. The Indian government, which is aiming to raise $3bn from sales of holdings in seven companies in the next two months, is setting the pace.

Analysts say the government is fuelling the "feel good factor" just before the Parliamentary elections in April-May.

Roadshow

The great Indian share bazaar kicked off in earnest on Friday.

Leading the public issue festival is India's largest gas transmission company, the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), and the country's biggest gas firm, Oil And Natural Gas Commission (ONGC).

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government is shedding its shares in five more companies with a view to raising more than $3bn.

GAIL began its roadshow in India's commercial capital Mumbai on Friday and it'll repeat it in London, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and several other cities in the coming days and weeks.

ONGC will soon follow suit. And so will some of the private companies, chief among them being India's first billion dollar info tech company, Tata Consultancy.

The disinvestment minister Arun Shourie kick-started the privatisation of government-owned companies by divesting 25% of the government stakes in Maruti Udyog in June last year.

Glut fears

And now his haste in rushing to the markets is dictated by his desire to reach privatisation targets of $3.5bn before the financial year closes in March.

But analysts say parliamentary elections are due in a few months' time and the federal government is keen to capitalise on the feel good factor, arising from a healthy growth rate of more than 8% and a strong performance by the markets over the past six months.

But there are fears that a glut of shares might over-heat the markets.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) fell by more than 170 points on Thursday, despite a positive investor response to offerings, which began on Tuesday.

But the message from stockbrokers is that investing in shares for short-term gains is worth the risk.