The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), the largest stock exchange in India, will officially list on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on September 24, initiating its own stock trading. Since the exchange itself cannot list on its own platform, NSE has chosen to list on its competitor BSE.

The IPO price range is set between ₹1700 and ₹1785 per share, with a total issuance scale of approximately ₹22,562 million. The issuance method is a 100% offer for sale by existing shareholders, with no new capital raised by the company. The subscription period is from September 17 to 21, and the allocation results were announced on September 22, with a minimum subscription amount of approximately ₹14,280 for 8 shares.

The overall subscription multiple reached 5.7 times, with Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) subscribing 12.68 times, High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs) 6.55 times, employee quotas 2.39 times, and retail investors 1.38 times. Subscription enthusiasm increased daily, from only 0.44 times on the first day to 2.03 times on the second day, peaking at 5.7 times by the last day.

Participating selling shareholders include several institutional shareholders such as State Bank of India (SBI), MS Strategic (Mauritius), Aranda Investments (Mauritius), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Indian Securities Depository, New India Assurance, Bank of Baroda, United India Insurance, and National Insurance Company.

Based on the upper limit of the issuance price range, NSE's price-to-earnings ratio is approximately 43 times, higher than that of the Singapore Exchange (34.3 times), London Stock Exchange Group (29.3 times), Nasdaq (26 times), Hong Kong Stock Exchange (25.2 times), and major international peers like CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange, Deutsche Börse, and Cboe (21 to 24 times), making it the highest-valued listed exchange globally. If successfully listed, NSE will rank as the seventh highest exchange by market capitalization worldwide. As of June 30, 2026, NSE has 261.36 million registered investor accounts and 3,005 listed companies, with a total market capitalization of approximately ₹474.08 trillion. In terms of trading volume, NSE accounts for about 11.38% of global spot stock trading and a staggering 51.18% of global stock derivatives contract trading, making it the largest derivatives exchange in the world.

In terms of profit structure, NSE's non-trading volume-related expenses account for about 22.73% of revenue, significantly lower than CME Group (31.71%), Nasdaq (33.45%), and London Stock Exchange Group (52.06%), indicating its cost control efficiency is leading among major global exchanges. EBITDA profit margin and net profit margin are also among the top, which is the core support for its ability to achieve a valuation premium over peers. Since this issuance is entirely for existing shareholders to reduce their holdings, with the company not raising new funds, the transaction essentially allows existing shareholders (especially state-owned financial institutions like SBI) to cash out their book profits, benefiting these sellers and early participating institutional investors, while putting pressure on secondary market investors who take over at a high P/E ratio and will need NSE to maintain its monopoly in the derivatives market to absorb the valuation.

The reason this listing took nearly ten years to materialize is rooted in the "co-location scandal" exposed in 2015, where some brokers gained improper advantages by setting up servers within NSE's data center for priority access to the trading system, involving unauthorized access to backup servers and illegal fiber optic connections. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) fined NSE ₹625 million in 2019 and imposed capital market restrictions, leading to the resignation of then Vice Chairman Ravi Narain, Managing Director Chitra Ramkrishna, and Chief Operating Officer Anand Subramanian. It wasn't until July of this year that NSE paid ₹714.474 million, along with ₹776.47 million previously paid, reaching a settlement of ₹1.49121 billion (NSE did not admit wrongdoing). The Supreme Court of India officially dismissed the case on September 3, clearing the final obstacle for this IPO.

Source: Public Information