After more than a decade of regulatory hurdles and delays, the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has taken a major step towards its stock market debut by filing its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with market regulator SEBI on June 17 for what could become India's biggest-ever IPO. NSE's IPO will be entirely an OFS up to 148,905,525 equity shares, raising nearly $3 billion.

Commenting on NSE IPO, IDBI Capital said the National Stock Exchange remains India’s largest stock exchange by total turnover in the cash market and in equity derivatives, based on notional turnover for equity options, from Fiscal 2001 to Fiscal 2026. Citing the Redseer Report, IDBI Capital said NSE has also been India’s largest exchange in exchange-traded currency derivatives.

IDBI Capital said NSE, incorporated in November 1992 and operational since 1994, runs a vertically integrated, multi-asset exchange offering trading, clearing, listing, data feed, data terminal services and index licensing services. As of March 31, 2026, it had 253.66 million registered investor accounts, 1,325 trading members, 129.09 million unique registered investors and 2,978 listed entities with a market capitalisation of ₹411.25 trillion.

Global scale and market share
According to IDBI Capital, which cited World Federation of Exchanges data, NSE was the world’s largest derivatives exchange by contracts traded for the seventh straight year as of March 31, 2026. It held a global market share of 11.38 per cent in the number of trades in cash equities and 51.18 per cent in contracts traded in equity derivatives.

In India, the exchange commanded 92.99% market share in cash equities, 99.79 per cent in equity futures, 74.71 per cent in equity options, 99.48 per cent in exchange-traded currency futures and 100% in exchange-traded currency options in FY26, according to the Redseer Report cited by IDBI Capital.

Financial profile and risks
IDBI Capital said NSE posted revenue from operations of Rs 16,601.31 crore in FY26, with an operating Ebitda margin of 66.85 per cent, profit after tax of Rs 10,302.6 crore and return on equity of 32.98 per cent. The report added that NSE reported a PAT margin of 50.98 per cent and had a consolidated core settlement guarantee fund of Rs 13,079.15 crore.

NSE paid dividends of Rs 35 per share in both FY25 and FY26. The report flagged key risks including concentration of revenue in transaction charges, which accounted for about 78.65 per cent of revenue from operations in FY26, regulatory oversight as a market infrastructure institution under SEBI, and the cyclical sensitivity of trading volumes to market conditions.

Growth runway and recurring revenues
IDBI Capital said the exchange remains positioned to benefit from India’s financialization. Demat accounts rose from 55.13 million in March 2021 to 224.51 million in March 2026, while investor penetration was still only 13.45 per cent of India’s adult population

SIP contributions increased about 3.6 times from Rs 9.60 lakh crore in FY21 to Rs 3.5 lakh crore in FY26, mutual fund AUM stood at Rs 73.73 lakh crore , up at an 18.60 per cent CAGR since March 2021, and passive AAUM as a share of GDP was 3.34 per cent, compared with ETF AUM of 43.47 per cent in the US as of CY25.

According to IDBI Capital, NSE also has recurring revenue streams beyond transaction charges, with data connectivity growing at a 17 per cent CAGR in FY24-26, index licensing at 25 per cent CAGR and co-location racks at 34 per cent CAGR. NIFTY indices accounted for about 72.53 per cent of India’s passive fund AUM, and the exchange had 425 indices as of March 31, 2026.

Summing up its view on the NSE IPO, IDBI Capital said the exchange combines market leadership, an asset-light business model and multiple revenue streams, while remaining exposed to transaction-linked revenue concentration, regulation and market-volume cycles.