For almost three decades, the National Stock Exchange has been the place where India buys and sells shares. This week it became something new to trade: a share itself.
The NSE IPO opened for subscription on September 17 and closes on September 21, with a price band of ₹1,700–₹1,785 per share, a lot size of eight shares and a minimum retail application of ₹14,280. The issue is worth about ₹22,562 crore, making it the second-largest public offer in Indian history after Hyundai Motor India’s ₹27,870 crore issue in 2024. Reports said it was fully subscribed by the second day of bidding, and a tentative listing date of September 24 has been indicated.
It arrives at an awkward moment for Indian equities, which have just posted a sixth straight weekly decline. But an IPO of this kind is rarely about the week it opens. It is about a question investors have been asking for years: what is the marketplace itself actually worth?
An IPO in which the company receives nothing
The first thing to understand is what this issue is not. It is a 100% offer for sale (OFS): 12.64 crore shares, roughly 6.02% of the company, being sold by 23 existing shareholders. NSE issues no new shares and raises no money. Every rupee goes to the sellers.
The largest sellers, according to the issue documents as reported, are State Bank of India (₹2,850.54 crore), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (₹2,119.52 crore), Aranda Investments (₹2,007.47 crore), MS Strategic (₹1,963.50 crore) and New India Assurance (₹1,874.25 crore). Many of these institutions have held their stakes for a very long time; the IPO is, above all, an exit route and a price-discovery event for them.
This is not a fundraising. It is a public valuation of India’s market infrastructure, with retail investors invited to be the marginal buyer.
How does an exchange make money?
An exchange earns a small fee on every trade that passes through it, plus income from services such as market data, technology and indices. The more trades, the more revenue — which is why volumes, and especially derivatives volumes, matter so much to its earnings.
On that measure NSE is dominant. Analyses of its offer document put its share of the delivery-based cash market at about 92.9% against BSE’s 7.1%, and its share of futures trading at about 99.7%. In equity options, measured by premium, NSE’s share was about 74.7% in FY26 and had slipped to around 68.4% in the first quarter of FY27. Its Nifty indices are also the benchmark for roughly 76.9% of index funds and ETFs.
Its financials, however, tell a more complicated story. For FY26, NSE reported revenue of about ₹16,601 crore, down 3.1%, and net profit of ₹10,302 crore, down about 15%. One analysis of the offer document attributes roughly six-tenths of revenue to equity options alone.
The derivatives problem
That dependence is the central risk in the story. Futures and options (F&O) trading exploded in India in recent years, and NSE’s revenue rode that wave. Then the regulator stepped in. SEBI has taken several measures to curb speculative F&O activity, including raising minimum contract values and limiting weekly expiries. Analysts link those steps to lower transaction income and, with it, lower profit.
This creates a paradox unique to exchanges. The same regulator that protects retail investors from excessive speculation also shapes the earnings of the business that profits from trading. A tougher rulebook may be good for households and bad for the exchange’s next quarterly result — and both can be true at once.
For an exchange, the regulator is not just a supervisor. It is a variable in the earnings model.
Paying 43 times earnings for the marketplace
At the top of the price band, NSE would have an implied market capitalisation of about ₹4.42 lakh crore. That is roughly 43 times its FY26 earnings of ₹41.62 per share. BSE, by comparison, is valued at about ₹1.35 lakh crore and trades at around 48 times earnings — a slightly higher multiple for a much smaller business.
On the surface, that makes NSE look reasonably priced against its only listed rival. But the comparison cuts both ways. NSE’s earnings have just fallen, and the multiple is being paid on a profit figure that regulatory changes may already have trimmed. BSE’s shares have also fallen about 22% since NSE filed its draft offer document in June, a reminder that a big IPO can reprice the entire sector.
Beyond shares: the energy and commodities bet
NSE is also trying to reduce its dependence on equity derivatives. It has introduced electricity futures, where it holds roughly 71% of the market, along with gold futures and futures on Dated Brent crude oil. It has incorporated a subsidiary, the National Coal Exchange, and launched Indian natural gas futures in July 2026.
These are intriguing, if early, bets. A country importing most of its oil — and swinging with every Brent move — has a growing need to hedge energy prices at home. If those markets deepen, they could give the exchange revenue that does not rise and fall with SEBI’s stance on retail options trading.
Why ordinary investors should care
Even people who never buy the IPO already have an indirect stake in NSE’s success. Millions of SIPs flow into index funds tracking the Nifty. The exchange runs the indices, clears the trades and provides the market data everyone else relies on. The IPO simply offers a direct way to own that infrastructure.
It also arrives with an unusual mix of hopes and worries: a monopoly-like market position, a business tied to trading volumes, a regulator actively changing the rules, and a market that has fallen for six straight weeks. None of that makes the offer good or bad. It makes it worth reading the offer document rather than the headlines.
What to watch next
Three things matter over the coming weeks. First, how the subscription closes on September 21 and how the listing behaves on September 24. Second, whether NSE’s share of equity options stabilises or continues to slide. Third, whether the new energy and commodity products begin to show up in revenue, not just in press releases.
For first-time IPO readers: how this kind of issue works
Large IPOs follow a fixed choreography. Before the public window opens, so-called anchor investors — big institutions — are allotted shares at the top of the band the day before; for NSE that was September 16. The public issue then runs for a few days, during which retail investors, wealthy individuals and institutions each bid within their own quotas. Once it closes, shares are allotted and the stock lists on an exchange a few days later.
The arithmetic for a retail bidder is simple. The minimum lot is eight shares, and eight shares at the upper price of ₹1,785 comes to ₹14,280 — the minimum application amount. That figure is small next to a ₹22,562 crore issue, which is exactly why retail participation in mega IPOs is as much about sentiment as capital.
The unusual twist here is that the company being valued is also the place where its own shares will trade. Reports point to a listing on BSE — which would mean, in an odd bit of market symmetry, that its smaller rival hosts the debut of the giant.
The risks that sit beside the numbers
Every IPO comes with a long list of risk factors, and an exchange’s are distinctive. The regulatory one is already visible: rule changes on derivatives have dented earnings. A second is concentration, because so much of the business depends on one product family. A third is operational: an exchange is technology infrastructure, and reliability failures at an exchange become national news in a way they would not at an ordinary company.
There is also the question of market share. NSE’s options share fell from about 74.7% in FY26 to around 68.4% in the first quarter of FY27. That is still a commanding position, but a falling share in the business that matters most is precisely the kind of line that separates a monopoly-like franchise from a contested one.
The most valuable thing an exchange sells is trust in the price. The most fragile thing about it is that it has to keep earning that trust every single day.
This article is for information and education. It is not investment advice; anyone considering the issue should read the red herring prospectus and consult a qualified adviser.
