ajesh said:
hello amitda
get well soon
have u heard anything abt sbi's stock splitting lately
can please explain to me what exactly is stock splitting
regards........!!!
aj....!!!!!
Hi aj... A stock split involves a company increasing the number of its shares outstanding and proportionately adjusting the share price to compensate for the change. This does not affect the intrinsic value or past performance of the stock.
Example is a 2 for 1 stock split. A company will announce that it's splitting its stock 2 for 1 from a fixed date. From that day on, a shareholder who earlier had 100 shares now has 200. The stock, having traded the day before at for example Rs. 100 will now be trading at half the price at Rs. 50. The company which may have had 10 lakh shares outstanding, now has 20 lakh outstanding. The price has been halved in order to accomodate the doubling of the share total.
The usual reasons for a stock split are, as the price of the stock climbs, market players would find it diffiult to trade in it. The split brings the price down, while retainign its intrinsic value.
Also, with a lower price, the stock's liquidity increases, often reducing the bid/ask spread which is a positive as now the stock is easier to trade.
The bid/ask spread is the difference in the bid and ask price at any given time. You will note that usually for an illiquid stock, say Financial Technologies, the difference between the bid and ask price is quite large.
Regards.