In the opening hours of Tuesday, the initial public offering (IPO) of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) was fully subscribed. Data on the exchanges showed that the Rs 645 crore issue received bids for 2.55 crore equity shares as against its offer of 2.016 crore shares.

The retail investor category has been subscribed 3.41 times, non-institutional investors portion saw 44 percent subscription while the reserved portion of employees was subscribed 1.68 times.

The IPO is open for subscription between 30 September and 3 October. The Government of India is looking to sell 12.6 percent stake in the entity through this offer for sale (OFS), reducing its total share to 87.4 percent.

Retail investors, as well as employees, are being offered shares at a 10 percent discount to final offer price.

Most domestic brokerages had given a "subscriber" rating to the issue considering IRCTC's monopoly in the industry segment, strong earnings and consistency in business.

This is the fourth public offering from a state-owned Railway company after Rail Vikas Nigam, RITES and Ircon.