BBC:
India’s ravenous appetite for stock market investing has sparked a fundraising gold rush in Asia’s third largest economy, with its booming initial public offerings (IPO) market undeterred by trade tariffs or global uncertainties.
Major companies – from global co-working firm WeWork India and South Korean conglomerate LG Electronics’ India arm to financial services giant Tata Capital – have raised record-setting amounts of money just this week, offering their shares to investors through IPOs.
Unlike the secondary markets, where investors buy and sell existing stocks of companies, IPOs are used by privately held firms to sell their shares to investors for the first time, and debut on the public markets.
Some 79 companies raked in $11.5bn (£8.58bn) in the first nine months of 2025, while a string of other issues in the final three months of the year is expected to bring in another $10-11bn, pushing India’s IPO market to more than $20bn this year, according to investment bank Kotak Mahindra Capital Company. And this is not counting the fundraising done by India’s small and medium-sized enterprises.
Companies operating in a wide range of sectors including new-age tech firms, e-commerce majors, retail, infrastructure and healthcare players are tapping the IPO market.
“This has given Indian investors the breadth [of investment opportunities] that’s not seen in other countries,” V Jayasankar, managing director at Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, told the BBC.
“Apart from institutional money, systematic investment plans [or fixed monthly contributions] by mom-and-pop investors in mutual funds has kept flows into IPOs robust,” Mr Jayasankar said.
