The National Stock Exchange (NSE) could make its stock market debut before September 25, bringing the curtain down on a nearly decade-long wait for the listing of India’s largest stock exchange.
The much-awaited initial public offering (IPO) could be launched as early as next week, with the listing likely to follow before September 25, a source close to the development said.
NSE MD and CEO Ashish Chauhan also hinted that the listing may be just weeks away while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Global Fintech Festival 2026.
The listing could also pave the way for further stake sales by existing shareholders. According to the source, some individual shareholders who are not participating in the offer for sale (OFS) may look to offload shares in the secondary market after the listing, potentially capitalising on any gains following NSE’s market debut.
The exchange received the final regulatory approval for its IPO last week, clearing the way for a listing nearly a decade after it first set the process in motion.
The IPO is expected to rank among the biggest in the history of the Indian capital markets. It will be entirely an OFS, with 10 existing shareholders collectively selling 148.9 million shares.
The sellers include State Bank of India, Mauritius-based MS Strategic — an entity linked to Morgan Stanley — Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Bank of Baroda. Four public-sector insurers — General Insurance Corporation of India, New India Assurance Company, National Insurance Company and United India Insurance Company — will also pare their holdings through the offer.
Bloomberg adds: National Stock Exchange of India has lowered the price range for its IPO and may shrink the stake on sale, according to people familiar with the matter, leaving the deal poised to fall short of becoming India’s biggest-ever listing.
The exchange is likely to price its shares at 1,700 rupees to 1,785 rupees apiece, below an earlier marketed range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,100, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. It may also reduce the stake being offered to about 5.5% of the total equity capital from the originally planned 6%, after some shareholders backed out of selling their stakes at the lower price, they said.
At the top of the proposed range, the sale of a 5.5% stake would raise about Rs 24,300 crore below the Rs 27,900 crore raised by Hyundai Motor India in 2024 in the country’s largest-ever IPO. That would value NSE at as much as Rs 4.42 lakh crore compared with a previously targeted a valuation of as much as Rs 5.26 lakh crore.
NSE’s decision to downsize the deal reflects unease over its valuation as growth slows and regulators step up scrutiny of stock-market activity. Options trading, a key driver of the exchange’s success, has come under particular pressure, with the government doubling the transaction tax on some derivatives and proposing a higher short-term capital gains tax.
Also denting the sentiment around the industry, Indian stocks have been chronic underperformers. The benchmark Nifty 50 index is down 10% this year, compared with a 25% gain in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
“The bar to win investors over has moved higher, not just for this IPO but for Indian equities more broadly after a year of underperforming many of its Asian peers,” said Hebe Chen, as enior market analyst at Vantage Global Prime in Sydney.
“Weaker returns and persistent foreign outflows mean they now need a much stronger valuation argument before putting fresh money to work. New listings in India can still attract capital, but investors are becoming far more selective.”
At the upper end of the revised price band, NSE would still be valued at about 43.4 times earnings in the previous fiscal year, among the most expensive of the world’s 10 largest listed exchanges. At $46.6 billion, it would rank as the world’s eighth-largest stock exchange by market value.
The cut in the deal size also raises questions about a busy listings pipeline that includes Jio Platforms progressing toward what could be one of the country’s biggest-ever IPOs.
NSE shares, which closed for off-market transfers on September 8 ahead of the IPO, last traded at 2,045 rupees apiece, according to UnlistedZone.com, a platform that facilitates transactions in unlisted shares. The upper end of the IPO price range is about 13% below that level.