India's primary market continues to demonstrate resilience despite broader market challenges, according to Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath. As reported by LiveMint, capital raised through public equity issues, including IPOs, follow-on public offers (FPOs) and offers for sale (OFS), has crossed the ₹2 lakh crore mark for the second consecutive year. The data shows that fundraising through public equity issues has reached record levels, with the 2026-27 figure being provisional through August 31 and already tracking close to the levels seen in the previous two years. The sharp increase in fundraising comes even as the overall market has not delivered the kind of broad-based momentum investors may have expected, leaving the primary market as a particularly active corner of India's capital markets.
The surge in primary market activity extends beyond institutional participation to retail investors. According to LiveMint, Kamath noted a big spike in IPO applications, including people opening trading accounts specifically to participate in public issues. The growing participation reflects strong interest among retail investors in newly listed companies, particularly as investors seek opportunities beyond the relatively subdued secondary market performance. Zerodha has witnessed this trend firsthand, with the brokerage seeing increased retail participation in IPO applications.
Despite strong fundraising numbers, historical data reveals that substantial listing gains are becoming less common, warning investors against assuming easy profits. As reported by LiveMint, tracking 371 main-board IPOs across five rolling 12-month periods through August 2026, approximately 74-80% of IPOs opened above their issue price, but the distribution of gains indicates that a large share opened only modestly above their issue price. The latest period from September 2025 to August 2026 shows 74.1% of IPOs opening above issue price, down from 80.2% in each of the previous two periods. However, the median listing gain has fallen sharply to 6.08% in the latest period, compared with 11.9% in September 2024-August 2025 and 14.5% in September 2023-August 2024.
The latest 12-month period from September 2025 to August 2026 shows a notable shift in listing performance patterns. According to LiveMint, 35.2% of IPOs opened between 0-10% above issue price - the largest single category in the latest period. 21.3% gained 10-25% higher, while 13.9% opened 25-50% above issue price, and only 3.7% opened more than 50% above their issue price. Conversely, 17.6% opened 10-0% below issue price, 4.6% opened 25-10% below, and 3.7% opened more than 50% below their issue price. This represents a significant change from previous periods where more IPOs opened with substantial gains.
Beyond listing performance, investors face additional challenges with IPO accessibility that the data does not capture. According to LiveMint, Kamath highlighted that "the more popular the IPO, the lower your odds of actually getting an allotment" when heavy retail demand exceeds available shares. This limitation means even investors who apply for IPOs may not receive any shares due to oversubscription. The headline subscription frenzy and rising number of IPO applications should not automatically be mistaken for easy profits, as the historical distribution shows that positive listing performance is common, but outsized gains are much less so than the headline success rate might suggest.
