Mumbai: The initial public offer of state-run power sector lender Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) was fully subscribed within half an hour of the opening of the issue today.

The issue saw robust demand right from the beginning and was fully subscribed within 27 minutes, said investment bankers associated with the offer.

REC is selling 15.6 crore equity shares in a price band of Rs90-95 a share to raise about Rs1,640 crore, through the book-building process.

The issue, which opened for subscription today, got subscribed 1.62 times of the issue size on the first day of its book-building process.

The issue will close on February 22.

The IPO would constitute about 18.18 per cent of the fully diluted post-issue capital of REC. 

The Bombay Stock Exchange power index failed to react to the positive response to the REC issue and settled the day with a loss of 1.13 per cent.

The 14-scrip power index opened nearly 40 points higher at 3,792.76, from the previous day's closing. The index settled for the day at 3,710.30, a decline of 42.57 points.

The IPO had a good impact on most power PSU stocks, which surged within the range between 0.30 per cent and 3.27 per cent except leading power generator NTPC and largest power transmission utility PGCIL.

RPG group company CESC also soared 0.30 per cent, and was quoted at Rs527.40, while power sector lender PFC closed the day at Rs194.15, up 3.27 per cent on BSE.

Private sector Reliance Energy, however, dipped as much as 4.41 per cent and settled at Rs1,622.15. Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Power declined 0.08 per cent even though the company is considering a bonus issue proposal. It closed at Rs 413.30, and over 62 lakh shares exchanged hands on the BSE.