NSE shares defy the over Rs 20,000-crore IPO curse by listing at a premium

As per the latest business developments, National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) defied the curse attached to mega Indian IPOs by stock-exchange debut at a premium on September 24.

Unlike Life Insurance Corporation of India, Hyundai Motor India, whose shares listed at a discount, NSE shares listed at a nearly 1% premium. If one goes a notch softer, even the Rs 18,000-crore Paytm IPO was a tepid affair with the shares stock-exchange debut at a discount.

Shares of NSE listed at Rs 1,800 apiece on the BSE, up 0.8% from its offering price of Rs 1,785.

NSE's initial public offering closed Monday and was subscribed nearly six times, led by firm demand from qualified institutional buyers and non-institutional market participants. It closed with bids for 505.81 million shares against 88.64 million shares on offer. The public offering comprised an offer for sale of up to 126.4 million shares. Ahead of the offer, the firm had boosted Rs 6,746 crore from anchor market participants by allotting 37.79 million equity shares at INR 1,785 per share.

Shares of the National Stock Exchange of India rose 4% on their trading debut on Thursday, capping a decade-long effort to list the country's largest bourse. The stock was up at 1,839 indian indian rupee terms as of 11:04 am, valuing NSE at Rs 4.56 lakh crore, making it among the world's 10 largest listed exchanges and India's tenth-biggest listed firm by market value. The Rs 22,560-crore IPO is India's second-largest on record, after Hyundai Motor India's 2024 offering. Rival BSE, formerly the Bombay Stock Exchange, which listed in 2017, trades at a valuation of Rs 1.32 lakh crore. BSE trades at 47 times trailing earnings, compared with NSE's IPO valuation of 43 times fiscal 2026 earnings, LSEG data revealed.

Tighter regulation of derivatives trading and declining volumes prompted NSE to reduce the size of the offering and softer its IPO price. The offering was entirely an offer for sale, with NSE raising no new capital. The IPO was subscribed 5.7 times, though retail market participants bid for only slightly more shares than were available to them. NSE's debut follows firm listings by LG Electronics India and HDB Financial Services. Jio Platforms is additionally anticipated to list later this year. Indian IPOs have boosted $9.9 billion from more than 190 deals so far in 2026, down 0.9% from a year earlier, LSEG data revealed.