National Stock Exchange of India set to list in major IPO

India’s National Stock Exchange, the backbone of the country’s equity markets, has officially filed to go public. The exchange submitted its Draft Red Herring Prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Board of India on June 17, 2026, setting the stage for what could be one of India’s largest-ever IPOs.

The offering is expected to raise around ₹29,780 crore (roughly $3.5 billion) at a valuation exceeding ₹5 lakh crore. To put that in perspective, the Indian IPO market has raised only about $3.5 billion total in 2026 so far. This single listing could effectively double the year’s haul.

A decade in the making

The NSE has been attempting to go public since 2016. A full decade of false starts, regulatory headaches, and governance investigations kept the exchange from crossing the finish line.

The breakthrough came in January 2026, when the NSE reached a ₹1,300 crore settlement with SEBI to resolve a slate of legacy issues. That settlement effectively cleared the regulatory pathway and set the IPO machinery in motion.

The offering is structured entirely as an Offer for Sale. That means existing institutional shareholders are selling their stakes. No new equity is being issued, no fresh capital is flowing into the company. The NSE’s capital base stays exactly where it is.

The OFS targets up to 148.9 million shares, representing approximately 6% of the company. Among the major sellers: the State Bank of India, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (which holds a 10.72% stake), Singapore’s Temasek (approximately 4.5%), and Canada’s CPPIB.

The advisory army

The NSE has assembled roughly 20 banks to advise on the IPO process, with Kotak Mahindra Capital among the lead arrangers. The listing is anticipated before December 2026.

The NSE handles the vast majority of India’s equity derivatives trading and has grown into the world’s largest derivatives exchange by volume.

What this means for investors

There’s also the governance question. The decade of regulatory delays wasn’t just bureaucratic friction. SEBI had legitimate concerns about the NSE’s internal controls and market access practices. The ₹1,300 crore settlement resolved those issues on paper, but the transition to a publicly traded entity will put the exchange under an entirely new level of scrutiny.

The Bombay Stock Exchange, India’s other major exchange, is already publicly traded. Having both exchanges listed creates a rare situation where investors can directly compare the financial performance and governance of competing market infrastructure providers.

Temasek and CPPIB are selling, but the question is who’s buying. Strong participation from global long-only funds would validate the NSE’s premium valuation and signal continued international confidence in Indian financial infrastructure.

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