The govt will move ahead with the stake sale of public sector companies without waiting for further improvement in the stock markets, a senior finance ministry official said.

“If we have to achieve the target of Rs 30,000 crore this financial year, we cannot wait for the market to improve beyond a point. I think the market has bottomed out,” Mohammad Haleem Khan, Secretary in the Department of Disinvestment (DoD), told reporters in New Delhi on Friday.

The DoD has already identified a host of state-owned companies for selling stake to achieve the budgeted target of Rs 30,000 crore in the current fiscal.

The companies include Hindustan Copper, SAIL, BHEL, RINL and NALCO, among others.

“If you have to sell in the market, you will have to sell at the price which market is willing to pay,” Khan said, adding there has not been a huge outflow of funds from foreign investors so far in the current fiscal.

“In this quarter although there is not very big inflow, but at the same time there has not been a very big outflow. So the interpretation suggests that Indian stocks still remain an attractive proposition. So that is a positive sign,” he added.

In June, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have pulled out funds worth over Rs 230 crore.

They had withdrawn Rs 347 crore from the equity market in May, and Rs 1,109 crore in April. The stock markets have declined about 2 percent since April.

Khan said the DoD has already started roadshows for a 10 percent initial public offer (IPO) of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL). The stake sale could fetch about Rs 2,500 crore to the exchequer.