National Stock Exchange of India downsizes IPO amid investor concerns over valuation

India’s biggest stock exchange is going public at a lower price than it hoped, after investors made clear they weren’t willing to pay the original ask. The National Stock Exchange of India filed a red herring prospectus on September 10, 2026, reducing the number of shares offered from 148.9 million to 126.44 million. That roughly 15% cut trims the stake being sold from about 6% to 5.1% of NSE’s equity capital, and pulls the implied valuation down from around $55 billion to approximately $47 billion. Why investors pushed back NSE spent time on the roadshow circuit in Hong Kong, London, and New York, and the feedback was consistent: the price was too rich given the regulatory clouds hanging over the business. The core concern is derivatives. NSE is the largest derivatives exchange in the world by trading volume, a status built largely on explosive growth in options contracts. Regulators at the Securities and Exchange Board of India have been scrutinizing that segment, and investors want a discount to reflect the possibility that tighter rules could clip that growth. The revised price band of ₹1,700 to ₹1,785 per share reflects exactly that discount. The original range was ₹2,000 to ₹...