Beneath the headlines of record listings, India’s primary market surge is being driven by smaller, downsized offerings as issuers prioritize locking in current liquidity over ambitious fundraising targets.
While the September quarter registered a record 63 initial public offerings (IPOs)—with 32 in September alone, including six on a single day—smaller issues kept values below record levels.
The average IPO size in 2026 stood at about ₹1,450 crore at the end of October. This was across 109 offerings of shares worth a combined ₹1.58 trillion, compared with 103 IPOs that sold ₹1.76 trillion of shares in 2025. Stripping out the four largest IPOs—Jio Platforms Ltd, the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd, Manipal Health Enterprises Ltd and SBI Funds Management Ltd—the average issue size fell to ₹820 crore this year from an average of ₹1,700 crore in 2025.
“The record number of IPOs despite weakness in the secondary market reflects the resilience of India’s primary market,” said Pranav Haldea, managing director of Prime Database Group. “However, the underlying trend is one of issuers recalibrating to market realities.”
After a relatively subdued first six months of calendar 2026, IPO activity picked up pace in the September quarter, with share sales of ₹87,680 crore from 63 listings compared with ₹21,500 crore from 23 listings in the first two quarters.