New Delhi, May 7 (IANS): Pledged holdings of the BSE-500 stocks shows that the percentage of pledged promoter or majority shareholder holdings by value has come down marginally in the March 2019 quarter in comparison to the December quarter.

The percentage of pledged promoter holdings declined to 2.83 per cent in the March 2019 quarter compared to 2.98 per cent in December 2018 quarter, the Kotak Equities report said on Q4 Pledged shareholding report.

Outstanding promoters pledged shares were Rs 1.95 lakh crore, which is about 1.38 per cent of the total BSE-500 Index's market capitalisation in March 2019.

Promoters of 116 companies pledged their holdings among BSE-500 Index. Six companies had more than 90 per cent of their promoter holdings pledged.

The report said that pledging of shares does not necessarily imply that a company or a promoter is under financial stress; banks (lenders) could have sought additional security in the form of promoter shares.

The main highlights of March 2019 pledged holding disclosures as per the report are companies whose promoters pledged more than 95 per cent of their holdings are CG Power and Industrial, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Capital and Sterlite Technologies.

The highest increase in pledged promoter holdings are JK Tyre & Industries, Reliance Capital, Reliance Infrastructure, Dish TV India and VA Tech Wabag.

Companies in which pledged promoter holdings declined included -- Granules India, Strides Pharma, Reliance Communications, Coffee Day Enterprises and Bajaj Consumer Care.

Fresh promoter pledges were done by JK Tyre & Industries, VA Tech Wabag, Forbes & Company, SH Kelkar and Company.

None of the promoters revoked their entire pledged holdings. Companies in the Nifty-50 with more than 5 per cent of pledged promoter holdings are Adani Ports & SEZ (42.3 per cent), Asian Paints (12 per cent), Indiabulls Housing Finance (12.7 per cent), JSW Steel (46.3 per cent), Sun Pharmaceutical (11 per cent), Zee Entertainment (66.2 per cent).