The unlisted market has witnessed remarkable growth this year, with Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India (MSEI) shares rising approximately 108% year-to-date from around ₹3.25 at the start of 2026 to ₹6.70-6.75 currently, according to data shared by Unlisted Arena. The stock's journey shows significant appreciation from ₹1.20 in September 2021 and ₹3.80 a year ago, demonstrating substantial long-term growth. Similarly, Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) shares have gained momentum, with current prices around ₹2,600 compared with approximately ₹1,500 in January-February 2026. The stock was around ₹850 in 2021, showing significant appreciation over the past five years.
The surge in unlisted exchange shares is attributed to multiple factors, including the NSE IPO filing and developments around CSE's revival, as noted by Krishna Patwari, founder and managing director of Wealth Wisdom India. According to Unlisted Arena, MSEI shares are among the most traded unlisted stocks in India and have been in focus following investments by Zerodha, Groww and other brokers. Manan Doshi, co-founder of Unlisted Arena, explained that "Since then, we have seen the stock move on both sides, depending largely on the sentiment around developments at the exchange." Recent media reports about leading brokers potentially testing integration with MSEI and offering clients an option to trade on the exchange have renewed investor interest, according to Doshi.
CSE's board decided to keep its February 2025 voluntary-exit application on hold and recommended a 1:2 bonus issue, as reported by Wealth Wisdom India. The exchange booked a one-off gain of ₹249.28 crore from sub-leasing three acres at E.M. Bypass for ₹253 crore, taking its FY26 net worth to about ₹406 crore against a market capitalisation of around ₹167 crore. However, CSE's trading platform has been idle since April 2013, requiring SEBI approval and an anchor investor meeting capital and fit-and-proper requirements for restarting operations. The exchange still maintains 1,507 listed companies and around 500 registered brokers, but restarting the platform would require significant regulatory clearances.
MSEI's net worth increased from ₹397 crore to ₹1,369 crore following fresh equity, according to Wealth Wisdom India. The exchange recently enabled a tokenised corporate bond issuance on its Electronic Bond Platform under SEBI's Demat 2.0 pilot, with the first transaction being IIFL Finance's ₹25 crore issue, settled against the RBI's wholesale digital rupee. MSEI's market capitalisation is around ₹7,587 crore, or about 5.5 times book value, on a ₹59 crore revenue base. The exchange has also conducted its own ₹1,000 crore tokenised issuance involving REC and L&T, with Patwari noting that "The initiative is currently institutional-only, with secondary-market trading and retail access planned for later phases."
For CSE revival, any restart would require SEBI clearance and an anchor investor, while for MSEI, real trading volumes and secondary bond trading would be important milestones, according to Wealth Wisdom India. Patwari noted that "Unlisted shares are not exchange-traded, so liquidity is thin and investors should size positions accordingly." The NSE is set to list on the BSE on September 24, with the exchange's FY26 profit of about ₹216 crore coming almost entirely from the one-time land gain, excluding which revenue was about ₹22 crore. Patwari emphasized that "With India's largest exchange having filed its draft prospectus with SEBI, investors are looking for other ways to get exposure to market infrastructure, and that has put these two exchanges in focus."
