The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) IPO has been subscribed to around 50% of the offered shares as of recent updates, with a significant development in shareholder participation. Eight selling shareholders have trimmed their stake offerings amid volatile market conditions and valuation concerns, while one dropped out entirely and one new seller was added to the offering. According to ET Now, this reduction in selling shareholders signals potential reluctance to sell at current price levels, with market analysts noting that only about 5% of the company is changing hands and no one is walking away from their positions entirely. The NSE IPO, which is entirely an OFS, closed for subscription on Monday, with data showing that selling shareholders collectively held a 36.82% stake in NSE before the OFS and have tendered shares equivalent to 5.11% of the exchange's equity, leaving them with a combined 31.71% stake after the offering.
The most notable change involves SBI Capital Markets, which has been added as a new seller offering 8,780,590 shares, representing 6.94% of the OFS. As per ET Now, this addition is significant as SBI Capital Markets is among the 18 merchant bankers who are marketing for the NSE IPO. The market context shows Nifty 50 has dropped approximately 5% from July highs, when it was trading at 24,675. Amit Kumar Lohia, who earlier proposed to sell up to 25,000 shares, has withdrawn his offerings that didn't appear in the RHP. The current pricing at ₹1,700-1,785 per share is below where unlisted deals were happening and about 26% under the June 2025 peak.
The selling shareholder data reveals that large institutional shareholders have largely opted to retain most of their exposure to the exchange even as they monetise a part of their holdings through the IPO. Aranda Investment (Mauritius) Pte Ltd, which held 4.54% in NSE before the OFS, has offered shares equivalent to 0.45% of NSE's equity, reducing its stake to 4.09%. Similarly, Stock Holding Corporation of India, which had a 4.44% stake, has tendered about 6% of its holding, reducing its stake by 0.25 percentage points to 4.19%. SBI Capital Markets has offered about 8% of its 4.33% pre-OFS holding and would retain a 3.98% stake. Mahagony Limited, which held 3.73% before the OFS, has offered just about 3% of its holding and would retain a 3.61% stake.
The NSE IPO has received strong anchor investor interest with management describing the response as "very satisfactory." Speaking to NDTV Profit, Sriram Krishnan, Chief Business Development Officer and Ian Desouza, Chief Financial Officer said the IPO experience has been exciting and highlighted participation from institutional investors. The management noted that the top 10-12 insurance companies had given a positive response to the issue. Ahead of the IPO, NSE had raised ₹6,746.18 crore from anchor investors on September 16 by allotting 3.78 crore shares at ₹1,785 apiece. The exchange's management emphasized that the statement "NSE is the real proxy for India" reflects the exchange's strong position in the country's capital markets, while pointing to significant scope for further growth as the Indian market remains "very underpenetrated."
The financial comparison between the two exchanges reveals NSE's dominant market position and superior financial metrics. NSE reported FY26 revenue of ₹16,601 crore and profit after tax of ₹10,302 crore, while BSE achieved revenue of ₹5,124 crore and PAT of ₹2,487 crore. Both exchanges maintained similar EBITDA margins of around 68%, with NSE's PAT margin at 62.1%. However, BSE demonstrated superior returns with ROE of 46% and ROCE of 60%, compared to NSE's ROE of 33% and ROCE of 42.8%. On valuation metrics, NSE's EV/EBITDA multiple of 35.1 times is broadly comparable with BSE's 24.9 times, while NSE's P/E of 42.9 times is below BSE's 53.3 times. The anchor book placement of ₹6,746 crore at ₹1,785 across 98 mutual fund schemes with 43% foreign investor participation provides a direct comparison basis for institutional investors.
NSE has maintained its position as India's largest exchange by cash-market and equity-derivatives turnover since FY01, with 132.37 million unique registered investors, 1,328 trading members, and 3,005 listed entities as of June 30, 2026. These companies had a combined market capitalisation of ₹474.08 trillion. The exchange commands a 93% share of the cash-equity segment and nearly 100% share of the F&O segment, with more than 90% of cash-market turnover and almost all equity-futures activity going through NSE every year since FY24. The vertically integrated business model spans exchange operations, clearing, Nifty indices, and data services, allowing monetisation across multiple services while new products can be added at relatively low incremental cost. However, the exchange has lost share in the segment since SEBI allowed each exchange only one weekly expiry day, with higher transaction tax from April 2026 expected to put further pressure on volumes.
