- NSE listed at just above its Rs 1,785 issue price but it was still less than what many retail investors had paid in the unlisted market
- Most of the retail shareholders arrived between April and June 2025, when their number jumped from about 34,000 to 150,000
- NSE is the latest, and so far biggest, in a series of unlisted market favourites that have let retail down, following Reliance Retail, HDB Financial, Tata Capital, and SBI Funds Management
- With NSE gone, the unlisted market has lost its most liquid stock. And its underwhelming listing has cooled the demand for unlisted shares of other major companies
After almost 10 years of waiting, the National Stock Exchange finally listed on 24 September. It underwhelmed.
Institutions bid for 13X the shares on offer to them, retail buyers 1.4X, and HNIs 6.5X, and the stock opened at Rs 1,800, just above its issue price of Rs 1,785. Yet, many shareholders already knew they wouldn’t make money.
That’s because they had paid more than Rs 1,785 for NSE in the unlisted market. In a frenzy between April and June 2025, retail shareholders soared in number from 34,000 to about 150,000, while the price rose from Rs 1,600 to over Rs 2,200. Nearly 70,000 of them bought too late to sell in the IPO, becoming locked in until March 2027 due to Sebi’s six-month lock-in period for pre-IPO investors. Now the shares are trading at Rs 1,695.
India’s most hyped unlisted stock flattered to deceive.
And the impact is already cascading through the unlisted market, less than a month on. Wealth managers say interest in unlisted shares has cooled.
Amit Dassani, founder of Clay Financial Services, says demand “has gone down quite a lot”. Abhay Agarwal, of Piper Serica Advisors, has seen “a remarkable drop in activity” because investors no longer see unlisted stock as a get-rich-quick IPO play.
The NSE listing has shaken faith even in safe-sounding names, like the quick-commerce company Zepto and the hospitality chain Oyo.
More worryingly, it has confirmed a trend. HDB Financial, Tata Capital, and SBI Funds Management all listed below what many, mostly retail, buyers had paid. Reliance Retail didn’t list at all, and bought out small shareholders for Rs 1,362 per share, far below the almost Rs 4,000 it once traded at. In August 2025, The Ken asked whether NSE would be nextThe KenIs NSE next in line after HDB and NSDL to burn unlisted-market investors—under Sebi’s watch?. It was. And it’s the biggest yet.
Still, despite all the money lost, the unlisted market sits largely outside Sebi’s rulebook. The regulator’s chief, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, spoke last year about setting up a regulated platformOutlook MoneySebi Chief Tuhin Kanta Pandey Hints At Regulating IPO Grey Market - Know What’s In It For Investors for pre-IPO trading.
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Retail investors piled into the unlisted market’s favourite stock. Regret followed
Tanmay Hardikar
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