NSE Mega IPO Gets Sebi Approval, Second Biggest IPO After Jio Platforms

Mumbai: Securities and Exchange Board of India has cleared national Stock Exchange of India's (NSE) draft red herring prospectus for the much awaited initial public offering. NSE's proposed IPO will be second largest IPO aiming to raise around Rs 30,000 to Rs 31,000 crore through an offer for sale by existing shareholders. Recently Reliance Industries promoted Jio Platforms also received Sebi approval for its proposed IPO which will be biggest with Rs 37,000 to Rs 38,000 crore of fresh equity share issuance.

NSE's IPO's Sebi approval came a day after the Supreme Court accepted the settlement terms arrived at between Sebi and NSE certain past regulatory lapses in the co-location and dark fibre cases, removing a key regulatory hurdle to exchanges' listing plans.

NSE will be third stock exchange after Multi Commodity Exchange and BSE to get listed.

NSE had filed DRHP for the second time in June, 2026 with Sebi for the proposed initial public offering.

NSE first filed its draft offer documents (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in December 2016 to raise around Rs 10,000 crore through an OFS. But Sebi approval and the listing process was delayed for nearly a decade due to regulatory scrutiny of co-location issue.

NSE is the largest stock exchange in India in terms of total turnover in the cash market and total turnover in equity derivatives.

As per the DRHP filed in June, 2026 NSE IPO comprises a public offer of 14.89 crore shares of Rs 1 face value through an offer-for-sale. NSE's share sale through the IPO will be nearly 6 per cent of paid-up capital of NSE. Shares will be sold by State Bank of India, MS Strategic (Mauritius), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Aranda Investments (Mauritius), Bank of Baroda, Stock Holding Corporation of India, General Insurance Corporation of India, The New India Assurance Company, National Insurance and United India Insurance Company.

NSE's biggest public shareholder Life Insurance Corporation of India will not be selling any shares through the proposed public offer, as per the DRHP.

With NSE's listing, India's stock market ecosystem functioning is likely to get further boost as a listed company NSE will be accountable to its public shareholders and will be also judged by a wider base of shareholders, said experts.

The primary difference between the NSE and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is that NSE is newer with higher trading volume and liquidity, while BSE is Asia's oldest exchange with a larger number of listed companies. NSE started operating from June 30, 1994 while BSE was established on July 9, 1875.

"The core impact of NSE IPO which is valued at Rs 4.88 lakh crore(USD 58 billion) in the unlisted market would be beyond stock exchanges space, and the IPO creates valuation re-rating benchmarks across market infrastructure institutions (MIIs), depository entities (CDSL, NSDL), asset management companies (AMCs), and retail brokerage platforms," said Thakur Ajit Singh , founder Graded Financial Services and a Market Expert .

"Also, as the listing friction is removed, NSE will not be permitted self-trading or workaround options ("permitted-to-trade category") on its own platform which will eliminate structural market overhangs for BSE shareholders," Singh said.

"BSE stands to benefit immense by way of transaction fee & listing revenue windfall as it would be exclusively hosting India’s highest-capitalised market infrastructure institution NSE and that would heighten platform trading activity, and recurring derivative volume on the NSE stock counter itself ," Singh said.

As of March 31, 2026, NSE stood out as the largest exchange in India in terms of total turnover in the cash market and the third largest globally in terms of number of trades in cash equities, according to World Federation of Exchanges.

Major market infrastructure institutions in India like depositories CDSL, NSDL, bourses BSE, MCX are already listed and NSE listing will be now added to the list.