NSE awaiting Sebi nod for IPO: Chauhan

Mumbai, April 4, 2024: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) is awaiting a nod from Sebi to restart the initial public offering process, said Ashishkumar Chauhan, CEO & MD of the National Stock Exchange, while talking to a journalist delegation in Mumbai, on Thursday.

The country’s largest stock exchange, that claims 9 crore unique registered investors and 16.9 crore accounts, will reapply for the IPO once the capital markets regulator is comfortable with the NSE operations, said Chauhan. “We will submit the revised prospectus (DRHP) when we get an approval from Sebi,” said Chauhan.

NSE’s listing has been delayed for several years, especially after Sebi’s probe and disapproval over corporate governance issues, including the 2015 co-location fiasco. The NSE had launched the co-location facility in 2009, allowing traders and brokers to establish their IT servers within its premises for a fee. A whistleblower had written to Sebi in 2015, alleging market manipulation by a few brokers using the facility that allowed them to access data faster, according to an Economic Times report.

While talking about other issues, Chauhan also struck a cautionary note for retail investors involved in the futures & options trading saying, “Only informed investors should get into the derivatives market.”

He was responding to a query on whether the recent increase in the number of trading hours would serve as a push for such retail investors. A Sebi research paper had earlier stated that nearly 90% of retail investors in the country had suffered losses in F&O trading.