Most IPOs often fail to recreate listing day bang, lose steam after debut

Few IPOs manage to hold on to listing day highs.

IPOs that make their Dalal Street with a bang often are unable to recreate their listing day boom, according to an analysis conducted by Kotak Institutional Equities. Even maiden issues that are highly subscribed have struggled to surpass the gains achieved on their listing.

A series of highly subscribed IPOs managed to deliver strong listing gains, but only a few are able to maintain that level of returns beyond the debut day. According to the brokerage, this trend highlights a growing disconnect between initial investor enthusiasm and post-listing performance.

Most of the IPOs that saw exceptionally high subscription levels delivered strong listing gains, but only a handful managed to sustain those returns beyond debut day. Between 2021 and 2025, companies like Paras Defence, Latent View Analytics, and Tega Industries delivered exceptional listing-day returns and then on, went to see sizable gains from their issue prices later.

However, based on the broader trend, most issues were unable to deliver a similar performance post-listing and gains were often moderated. Issues such as Vibhor Steel Tubes and Tatva Chintan Pharma, while jumping up to 169 percent on listing day, have barely given investors returns following the debut.

Further, Kotak noted that fewer IPOs are giving the same kind of listing day gains seen earlier. In 2025, only 15 percent of all Dalal Street debuts gave returns of 25 percent on listing, as compared to 41 percent in 2024.

Over 2021 and 2025, roughly 27 percent of all issues listed below their debut price. Currently, around 38 percent of these companies are trading below their issue price. “The performance would be even weaker relative to market returns or adjusted for time based on a reasonable cost of capital,” added Kotak.

Regardless, promoters are still flocking to Dalal Street to publicly list their companies. Offer for sale (OFS) continues to outweigh fresh capital in the overall IPO issuance during the past few years.

Around 200 companies are likely to make their market debut to raise a combined $35 billion. Most of the upcoming issues are small in size, around 67 percent of them are below Rs 1,000 crore, contributing 38 percent of the total issue value.

The mid-sized IPOs between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 2,500 crore make up 18 percent of both the issue count and value, while large issues above Rs 5,000 crore account for just 4.3 percent of the number of offerings but 24 percent of the total value.

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