A hundred new listings in FY26, a 9% listing-day pop, and a final return of negative 0.10% — Axis Capital data lays bare the cost of a market that prioritised volume over value
India just completed its biggest IPO year on record. It has not gone well.
A total of 100 companies listed on Indian exchanges in the fiscal year through February 2026, the highest number in at least six years, according to data compiled by Axis Capital. As of February 27, that cohort is sitting on a collective return of negative 0.10 per cent which means the entire cohort, taken together, has wiped out every rupee of gain and then some for investors who held past listing day.
The listing day average was 9 per cent. Post listing average returns have been negative up untill February 27, 2026.
India IPO Performance by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | No. of IPOs | Trading Above Issue Price | Listing Day Gain | Gain as of Feb 27, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26* | 100 | 41 | 9% | -0.10% 🔴 |
| 2024-25 | 79 | 39 | 40% | 10% |
| 2023-24 | 76 | 37 | 26% | 28% |
| 2022-23 | 37 | 19 | 9% | 61% |
| 2021-22 | 54 | 35 | 31% | 88% |
| 2020-21 | 31 | 21 | 34% | 206% |
*Till February 27, 2026. Source: Axis Capital
The FY26 No Show
The FY2025-26 class is an outlier in the worst possible direction. In FY2024-25, 79 IPOs delivered a 40 per cent listing day gain and were sitting on 10 per cent total returns by the same benchmark date. The FY2023-24 cohort of 76 companies had produced 28 per cent gains. Go back to FY2020-21 with 31 listings, less than a third of this year’s volume while investors were up 206 per cent.
This year’s record volume has produced the worst sustained return in the dataset. Of the 100 companies that listed, only 41 are currently trading above their issue price. The remaining 59 are in the red.
Retail Investors Took the Hit
India’s IPO market has been built, in significant part, on retail participation. The retail bucket — a reserved allocation for individual investors applying at smaller sizes — has been the headline metric for oversubscription stories and the justification for premium valuations at the time of listing. Those investors applied in large numbers, received allotments, and largely held. The 9 per cent listing day average was enough to generate enthusiasm.
The numbers are resulting in apathy from retail investors participating in IPOs. The more precise description is that retail investors have received a clear and repeated signal that the listing day gain belongs to institutional sellers and grey market operators, and the subsequent losses belong to everyone else who believed the growth story.
What comes next
With a hundred IPOs in twelve months the IPO circuit has been running at maximum with investment banks clearing their pipelines, promoters monetising at peak valuations, anchor investors lending credibility to books that in a more selective environment might not have closed.
The immediate consequence is already visible in the market. Retail subscription numbers for recent IPOs have softened. The grey market premium, once a reliable indicator of listing day excitement, has compressed. Investors who burned their fingers in this year’s cohort are not rushing back. The harder question is whether the gatekeepers particularly lead managers, draw any conclusions from a year in which a record number of companies listed and a record proportion of retail investors lost money.
