A total 270,000 ONGC shares were put up for auction on Friday, at the end of the settlement for trades done this Monday. Settlement proceeded smoothly, with the ONGC scrip closing at Rs 859.85 on Friday, 3.47 per cent higher over Thursday's close.

The muddle over the allotment of ONGC shares continued yesterday with high net worth individuals complaining that shares have still not been credited to their accounts.

To compound the issue, retail investors have also complained of either not having been allotted any shares or under-allotment, despite being promised full allotment.

Several HNIs having their accounts with Stock Holding Corporation of India (SHCIL) said that they had not yet received their allotments.

Many of these investors were waiting for these shares so that they could fulfill their obligations at the time of settlement today. "Now we will have to wait till Monday," said an investor.

Meanwhile on Friday, 2,31,414 shares of ONGC were auctioned on the NSE while 39,654 shares were auctioned on the BSE, according to an official data.

Officials at the Securities and Exchange Board of India were not available for comment but sources said that crediting of shares was the responsibility of the National Securities Depository. MCS which is alleged to have uploaded a wrong allotment file on Monday, leading to the mess up, was not available for comment.

Amit Rastogi, an investor, who had applied for 300 shares said he had not received any shares as yet. Sanjay Thakkar, a HNI, had applied for 60,000 shares was supposed to get around 30,000 shares. But he has received only around 100 shares in his account. There are similar tales of woe from a large number of investors.

Gajresh, an investor who had applied for 70 shares got 114 shares and these shares have not been reversed.

Error while uploading allotment files possible, says Raha

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Chairman and Managing Director Subir Raha said the discrepancies in the allotment of shares in the recent public issue may have occurred at "the point where the allotment files were being uploaded on to the national depositories".

He added that the corporation has set up an Investor Relation Cell on Friday to attend to investor grievances.

Raha said investors should appreciate that ONGC was out of the picture once the roadshows were over. "After the roadshows and until the allotment of shares, ONGC was nowhere in the picture. The lead managers and the registrar were handling the issue," Raha said on in Ahmedabad on Thursday evening.

He admitted that while some persons might have taken advantage of the improper allotment, the company could not have done anything about it. "ONGC has the right to interfere and stop allotment, but there was no reason for such a move. I believe the upgraded information and allotment will have been completed by Thursday evening," he said.

Asked as to who was responsible for the impasse, Raha said the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is conducting an investigation into the matter and will take appropriate action. "But still, if there is any mismatch in allotment of shares, investors can contact the Investor Relation Cell to sort out problems," Raha said.

Raha said that while J M Morgan Stanley, DSP Merrill Lynch and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company were the lead managers to the issue, MCS was the registrar.

"It was the biggest public issue ever and the lead managers and registrar worked extremely hard in the past fortnight. We should recognise this fact," Raha said.