Over half a dozen listed CPSEs, including mining major NMDC and oil engineering firm EIL, will have to hit the capital market again in order to comply with the government's decision to increase public shareholding in all listed PSUs to at least 10 per cent of their capital.

The profit-making central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), which have less than 10 per cent equity with the public, also include MMTC, Nevyeli Lignite, State Trading Corp (STC), National Fertiliser, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) and Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore.

Home Minster P Chidambaram today announced that the government has decided that all profit making listed CPSEs should increase public ownership of equity to a minimum of 10 per cent. The government has, however, not indicated any timeframe for complying with the directive.

The loss-making listed CPSEs, however, will not fall within the ambit of the current directive. These would include Hindustan Copper Limited and HMT as both the companies have incurred losses of Rs 10.31 crore and Rs 70.79 crore respectively during 2008-09.

The government is already working out a plan to divest 10-15 per cent of its equity in the blue chip NMDC to dilute its holding, which currently is 98.38 per cent.

The public has 0.67 per cent holding in MMTC, 6.44 per cent in Nevyeli, 8.98 per cent in STC, 9.60 per cent in EIL, 2.4 per cent in NFL, 7.5 per cent in RCF and 1.9 per cent in Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore.