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Ownership, FII & Promoter Activity

Low Public Float (Below 10%)

Low Public Float (Below 10%) is a Ownership, FII & Promoter Activity screen. It checks every NSE-listed stock against 1 condition computed from nightly data, after excluding heavily pledged promoters and very small market caps. This page explains the rule, each figure and its source. It lists no stocks and is not advice.

What it does and why

SEBI mandates a minimum 25% public float for listed companies to ensure adequate market liquidity and price discovery. When public (non-promoter, non-institutional) holding drops below 10%, it means the promoters and institutions collectively own more than 90% of the equity — leaving an extremely thin free float. This creates two distinct scenarios: (1) a potential open offer or delisting attempt is underway (bullish for short-term price but often results in delisting), or (2) the company is at regulatory risk of SEBI-mandated divestment. This is a structural observation screen — not a buy or sell signal — but one that demands investor attention before any position.

The rule, step by step

A stock must satisfy every condition below. Conditions are grouped under the pillar they test.

Float Concentration

  • Public Holding < 10

Hard excludes

  • Promoter pledge above 30% of the promoter's holding
  • Market cap below ₹500 crore
Passes the screen

Ranked by Public Holding, lowest first.

The figures it uses

Public Holding

Used in a condition
Formula
Non-institutional public share of equity in the latest quarterly pattern
Input fields
NonInstitutions
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/pattern/{symbol}?period=quarterly
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Promoter Pledge

Hard exclude input
Formula
Pledged shares as a share of the promoter's own holding: pledgedSharesPct ÷ promoter holding × 100; blank when the quarter is not listed
Input fields
pledgedSharesPct, promoter holding
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/summary/{symbol}?period=quarterlyFinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/pattern/{symbol}?period=quarterly
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Market Cap

Hard exclude input
Formula
Close × paid-up equity shares ÷ 10,000,000 (₹ crore)
Input fields
close, paidUpEquityShares
Source of record
Upstox · public historical candles, NSE_EQ|{ISIN} (no auth)FinEdge · /api/v1/daily-quotes/{symbol} (fallback)FinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/summary/{symbol}?period=quarterly
Corporate actions
Adjusted for corporate actions before use
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

What each figure means

Public Holding (% of Total Equity)

The percentage of total equity held by non-promoter, non-institutional investors (the 'public'). SEBI's minimum threshold is 25%. Below 10% signals extreme concentration.

The lower this number, the more concentrated the ownership and the higher the likelihood of either a delisting offer or regulatory enforcement. Stocks with below-10% public float typically have very low daily trading volumes as well.

Low is better

Promoter Holding (%)

Promoter + promoter-group holding. If promoters hold >75%, an automatic public offer obligation is triggered under SEBI SAST rules.

High is better

Combined FII + DII Holding (%)

Total institutional ownership. High institutional ownership + low public float means the stock is owned almost entirely by insiders and institutions.

When institutional holding is also high alongside low public float, the effective tradeable float is near zero. This means any retail buying will have an outsized price impact — and any institutional exit will as well.

High is better

Try the rule

Type hypothetical values to see which conditions they satisfy. These are not real stocks and nothing here is stored.

  • Public Holding < 10—

Enter values to begin

How sensitive is it?

How many stocks pass if this threshold were set differently. Counts only; no stocks are named.

A worked example

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Evidence

What the harness measured

no_verified_figureNot yet tested

We have not measured this screen yet, so there is no record to explain.

Live monitoring

  • 5-day IC 0.023 · signal date 2026-10-14 · n 4447
  • 22-day IC -0.017 · signal date 2026-09-12 · n 3840

This is a historical, statistical measurement produced by FINOME TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD's research harness on past data. It is not a prediction, and past results do not indicate future results. The universe is today's Nifty 500 constituents, so the sample is affected by survivorship bias. It describes how a screen's selections behaved in the past and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation.

Run this screen

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Rule version 1.0.0

Questions

How is this screen calculated?
Each stock is tested against 1 condition using figures computed from exchange prices and company filings, adjusted for corporate actions. The rule is versioned; this page shows version 1.0.0.
How often does the screen update?
The figures are recomputed once each trading day after the nightly compute. A stock whose figures are more than three days old is left out rather than shown stale.
Is this investment advice?
No. This is educational material describing a screening method. It does not recommend any security and does not consider your circumstances.
Educational use only — GoQuant is a research tool. This page explains a screening method and is not a recommendation. Investment advice is provided by FINOME TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD (AltQube), SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, registration no. INA000018373, under a signed advisory agreement and after a risk profile. Past performance is not indicative of future results.