84 companies tapped the capital market in the first six months of this fiscal to raise Rs 1,812 crore, marking an almost five fold increase over the corresponding period in 1999. In the April-September period of 1999, 17 companies had mopped up Rs 902 crore, says prime database. On the debt front, however, there was a major fall. The current half witnessed a mobilization of only Rs 339 crore compared to Rs 2526 crore in the preceding year. While 74 per cent of the total amount had been mobilised through debt in the previous year, this fell to only 16 per cent in the current year. According to prime, at a combined level (debt and equity), the current half witnessed 86 public issues compared to only 21 in the previous year. Despite this, the amount raised was lower at Rs 2150 crore compared to Rs 3428 crore in the previous year. The fall in the amount was on account of financial institutions not raising debt at the same level as they did last year. In the current half, only ICICI entered the market raising a meager Rs 339 crore. In the preceding year, the total debt raising was Rs 2526 crore contributed by IDBI (Rs 1500 crore) and ICICI (Rs 1026 crore). Like the previous year, the equity offerings in the current year, according to prime, were mainly from the ice sector, 77 out of the total 84 issues. The ice sector dominated with Rs 1572 crore or 87 per cent of the total. While the I.T. Sector raised Rs 05 crore through 66 issues, the media sector collected Rs 282 crore through nine offerings and the telecom sector Rs 785 crore through two issues. What is, however, disturbing is the flooding of the market by small issues, as many as 54 of the 77 ice issues were of less than Rs 5 crore, with 43 of them being less than even Rs 3 crore each. Outside ice, the institutional/banking sector mobilized Rs 216 crore through 2 equity issues while 2 NBFCS raised Rs 5 crore. This mobilization by the manufacturing sector was only of Rs 19 crore through three issues. In a significant reversal, while institutions/ banks through debt and equity had accounted for a high 84 per cent of the total mobilization in the previous year's first half, their share fell to a low 26 per cent in the current year.