Led by aggressive foreign institutional investors, individual investors have started coming to the market in hordes to bid for Maruti shares, booking about 5.7 crore (57 million) shares so far.

According to sources involved in Maruti's public offering, which opened on June 12, individual investors comprising of retail buyers and high net worth individuals accounted for a significant 30 per cent of the total bids of over 19 crore (190 million) shares received till Friday, the second day of the public offering.

The book-building offering received a tremendous response from the FII's, who bid for the largest chunk comprising of about 13 crore (130 million) shares of the public offering by the auto major, where the government is in the process of offloading 25 per cent stake.

The massive response from retail investors has raised the government's hopes of setting aside a higher share for the segment. At present, a minimum of 25 per cent has been kept aside for retail investors while 15 per cent has been reserved for high net worth individuals and the balance for qualified institutional buyers.

Sources said the various limits may be revised to allow individuals to buy as much as 70 to 80 per cent of the offering.

About 7.2 crore (72 million) shares have been put on the block as part of the public offering, although the government can exercise a green-shoe option retaining 10 per cent of oversubscription.