Should you buy the next IPO? 245 companies waiting to list. Here's what's coming

India's IPO pipeline just hit a massive milestone. According to Equirus' latest Equity Capital Markets Tracker for June 2026, a staggering 245 Draft Red Herring Prospectuses (DRHPs) are currently sitting in the pipeline. Of these, 175 have already cleared SEBI's observation stage, meaning they're essentially cleared to launch whenever market conditions align. This is one of the strongest primary market pipelines India has seen in recent years, and it signals continued confidence from companies wanting to go public despite global uncertainty.

Not every company is in the clear yet. Of the 245 DRHPs filed, 70 are still awaiting SEBI observations before they can move forward. Timing matters here too - 39 DRHPs are set to expire by September 2026, another 45 by December 2026, and the remaining 91 sometime after that. Companies typically have a limited window to launch after SEBI clears them, so expect a wave of IPO announcements as these deadlines approach through the rest of 2026.

India's primary market stayed active in June 2026, with seven IPOs and ten Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs) hitting the market. Even better for investors - 71 per cent of the issues that listed during the month debuted at a premium, a strong signal of investor appetite. Interestingly, there were no Follow-on Public Offers (FPOs), REITs, or InvITs launched in June, keeping the spotlight squarely on fresh IPOs and QIPs.

Global geopolitics and India's stock market are more connected than you might think. The report points to easing macroeconomic uncertainty following the US-Iran ceasefire framework as a key reason IPO activity picked back up in June after a period of moderation. That said, issuance volumes are still below the peak seen in September 2025. Still, the trend is encouraging: issuers are gradually stepping back into the primary market as conditions stabilise globally.

While foreign investors pulled out nearly USD 5 billion during June, domestic retail investors kept the market steady. Monthly SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) inflows stayed close to ₹31,000 crore in June, up from ₹28,464 crore a year earlier. This growing base of disciplined retail investing is increasingly acting as a cushion against foreign institutional investor outflows, a trend that has reshaped how resilient India's markets have become to global shocks.

Not all sectors are equal when it comes to fundraising. Over the last 12 months, the Media, Consumer and Healthcare (MCH) sector topped the charts, raising more than ₹1.12 lakh crore, followed by Industrials at around ₹82,800 crore and BFSI at over ₹71,300 crore. Most of this fundraising in MCH, BFSI, and Industrials came through Offer for Sale (OFS) transactions - meaning existing shareholders cashing out, rather than companies raising fresh growth capital.

Here's a standout trend: while most sectors relied on OFS transactions, the Infrastructure sector bucked that pattern. Nearly 72 per cent of funds raised in Infrastructure came through fresh issues, showing genuine demand for growth capital rather than promoter exits. On the flip side, IT, Technology, and Telecom companies were the most monetisation-heavy, with 79 per cent of funds raised through OFS. Add in strong institutional backing - FPIs alone invested ₹40,396 crore via anchor books over the past year - and India's IPO story looks built on solid, broad-based support heading into the second half of 2026.