NSE, India’s largest stock exchange, took a huge step towards its public listing after it filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India on Wednesday. NSE formally began operations only in 1994. However, in a little over three decades, it now commands a dominant position in various equity cash and derivate segments.

According to the World Federation of Exchanges, NSE is also the largest equity derivatives exchange globally. The DRHP notes that NSE had a global market share of 11.38 per cent in number of trades in cash equities and 51.18% in contracts traded in equity derivatives in the financial year 2026.

In India, the exchange had a market share as high as 92.99% in cash market, based on total turnover, 99.79% in equity futures, based on total turnover, and 74.71% in equity options, based on premium turnover.

The exchange is well-positioned to benefit from India's structural growth tailwinds which drive strong network effects for it, NSE said.

In financial year 2026, total fund mobilisation on NSE was Rs 20.33 lakh crore, with Rs 1.78 lakh crore mobilised by fresh listings and offer for sale across the mainboard and SME board in primary markets, according to a report by Redseer.

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Even as it leads the equity cash and derivatives segments, NSE has been expanding its product offerings in recent times in other areas. In May this year, it began live trading in electronic gold receipts (EGRs), which opens another avenue for investors attracted to gold. EGRs are essentially dematerialised securities that represent ownership of physical gold. While the underlying physical gold is stored in SEBI-accredited vaults, the receipts can be traded on the exchange. Rival BSE had launched EGR back in 2022.

As such, NSE is scaling up its commodity derivatives offerings significantly. Last year, the exchange launched trading in monthly electricity futures. NSE, earlier this year, also received regulatory approval to invest in the proposed National Coal Exchange of India. The approval would enable the establishment of a structured market platform for physical coal trading in India.

NSE has also received approval to expand its commodity derivatives offering to natural gas, with such contracts to be based on the Gas Index of India. It holds a strategic 25% investment in Indian Gas Exchange, an associate company that operates a gas exchange platform.  Brent crude oil and 10-gram gold futures contract, are some of the other recent offerings in the commodity derivatives space.

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It has also recently partnered with S&P Global Energy to launch derivatives on Platts benchmarks, followed by the launch of dated Brent Crude Oil (Platts) futures.

The NSE public issue comprises up to 14.89 crore equity shares, representing about 6% of NSE’s paid up capital. This will be entirely an offer for sale. So, there is no fresh issue of capital and NSE will not receive any proceeds.

There are 10 large institutions that are selling their stake in the exchange, which include India’s largest lender, State Bank of India, MS Strategic (Mauritius), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Aranda Investments (Mauritius), Bank of Baroda and Stock Holding Corporation of India. Domestic insurance majors General Insurance Corporation of India, New India Assurance, National Insurance and United India Insurance. Notably, India’s largest insurer LIC, is not selling any stake.

The IPO size estimated to be around Rs 25,000-30,000 crore will make it one of the largest public floats in India’s capital market.

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