India's IPO boom boosts NSE's listing business, revenue rises 12% in FY26

Mumbai: India’s blockbuster IPO run over the past two years has minted hefty fees for investment bankers and legal advisers. But another key beneficiary of the listing boom has been the National Stock Exchange, which earned a tidy sum of Rs 352 crore from listing services in FY26. Listing revenue rose 12% from Rs 314 crore a year earlier, according to the exchange’s draft IPO prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

While the segment accounted for only 2.12% of NSE’s operating revenue of Rs 16,601 crore in FY26, its contribution has steadily increased from 1.51% in FY24 and 1.83% in FY25. The growth came despite a decline in the number of IPOs on the exchange — NSE hosted 219 IPOs in FY26, against 242 in FY25 — as companies raised much larger sums through public issues, driving up book-building fees.

NSE earns listing-service revenue through a mix of one-time initial fees, annual fees, processing charges and book-building fees. Annual fees, linked to a company’s paid-up capital and market capitalisation, provide a recurring income stream, while initial fees are paid at the time of listing. The exchange had 2,978 listed entities at the end of FY26, up from 2,719 in FY25 and 2,438 in FY24, reflecting the rapid expansion of India’s listed universe amid buoyant equity markets.


NSE pointed out that despite Indian exchanges ranking among the top two globally by number of IPO listings in FY26, listing fees remain well below those charged by global peers. As India’s capital markets mature, there could be room for a “progressive” recalibration of fee structures, it said. The prospectus projects listing-service revenue to grow at a compound annual rate of 15-20% between FY26 and FY30. For now, though, listing fees remain a modest slice of NSE’s revenue pie, dwarfed by transaction charges and data-connectivity income.

BSE, India’s other exchange, which counted 255 listings in FY26 against NSE’s 219, reported an operating revenue of Rs 4,834 crore for the year. It does not disclose a break-up of revenue by segment, making a direct comparison on listing fees impossible.

Interestingly, rules bar a bourse from listing on its own platform, so NSE’s own IPO — expected to be the biggest of the year — will be hosted on BSE, handing its rival the listing fees from the float.