With a sale of a stake in MMTC Ltd, India kicked off its plan to raise 400 billion rupees through asset sales. On Thursday, trading firm MMTC discounted oversubscribed share offering.

The Indian government plans to sell stakes in other firms including Coal India Ltd, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and Indian Oil Corp. The move is to cut its fiscal deficit which is the top priority for Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

Based on the minimum bid price, the successful sale of 9.33% stake in MMTC was worth roughly US$96 million. This is another shot for the government after Fitch signaled approval of its efforts to rein in the deficit.

The government currently owned 99.3% of MMTC offered 93.3 million shares valued at 60 rupees per share for a minimum bid.

A company source told Reuters that the government was force to set the minimum bid value on a 71% discount as the stock is not easily tradable and illiquid.