Sriram Krishnan, Chief Business Development Officer, NSE, “The country, if it grows at about 7-7.5%, then the financial services industry typically grows anywhere between 13 to 15%. If you look at the past record of NSE as well, we have been growing range in that range, I would say – 13-15% range in line with other financial services firms.”
The ₹22,569 crore NSE IPO opened for subscription on Thursday, September 17. It is India’s second-largest IPO and the biggest issue of 2026 so far.
The IPO is entirely an offer for sale, so NSE will not receive any proceeds. The price band is set at ₹1,700-₹1,785 per share, with a minimum lot size of eight shares.
Technology spending is a major part of NSE’s operations, with expenses standing at around ₹1,300 crore in FY26. However, the exchange expects these costs to remain manageable as it adds new products and expands its business.
Ian Desouza, Chief Financial Officer, NSE, said, “Our technology is a platform that has been built within NSE. So, unlike a technology platform which is acquired from outside, this technology platform can be scaled to add additional products. Our technology expenses have pretty much reached a stable run rate and should be able to accommodate without exponential additional growth than the run rate of mid-teens going forward.”
The exchange expects new offerings to be accommodated at a marginal cost rather than resulting in a sharp increase in technology spending.
Market share remains another key focus area for the exchange, particularly in the derivatives segment.
Krishnan said NSE continues to have close to 100% market share in single-stock options and monthly-expiry options. The exchange has seen some market share loss in weekly index options following changes to the expiry structure.
The number of weekly expiry days was reduced from four to one, while Bank Nifty was shifted to a monthly expiry contract.
Despite these changes, NSE believes its focus should remain on improving the overall trading experience rather than pursuing market share directly. The exchange plans to invest in areas such as co-location capacity, faster response times and online visibility into position-limit utilisation.
The management believes better trading efficiency can help attract more participants to the exchange and support its market position over time.
NSE’s ₹6,746 crore anchor book was fully subscribed, with participation from 189 investors.
Foreign investors accounted for 43% of the anchor book, while domestic investors made up 53%. The participation included large mutual funds, insurance companies and several existing shareholders.
Investors from the US, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe participated in the anchor book, according to Krishnan.
For the entire discussion, watch the accompanying video
