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The appointment of a new Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairperson marked a turning point in National Stock Exchange of India Ltd's (NSE's) decade-long path to an initial public offering, chief executive Ashishkumar Chauhan told Mint after the company's stock debuted in Mumbai on Thursday. Chauhan, who took charge of the exchange around four and a half years ago, said the capital markets regulator established a constructive dialogue to resolve regulatory inquiries and settle pending court cases. "Largely, the turning point for NSE's IPO has been the appointment of Sebi's new chairperson. He looked at our listing plan constructively and ensured that all the issues which Sebi thought were important before giving us approval were raised with us, and we could provide solutions," Chauhan said. Tuhin Kanta Pandey took charge as Sebi's chairman in March 2025 after Madhabi Puri Buch. Under Buch's administration, Sebi withheld clearance of NSE's IPO due to unresolved systemic risks and regulatory investigations. NSE first filed its IPO papers in 2016, after which it was caught up in the co-location scandal and was accused of giving select brokers unfair access to its servers. As the case dragged on, the IPO was shelved amid a leadership overhaul. In January 2026, under the new management, NSE reached a ₹1,300 crore settlement with Sebi and received the go-ahead to refile its papers. Shares of NSE made a flat debut on Dalal Street, delivering a listing premium of ₹15 to share allottees. The NSE share price opened at ₹1,800 but gained momentum, touching an intraday high of ₹1,845 within a few minutes of listing. The stock closed on the first day of trade at ₹1,817 apiece on BSE. No change in regulatory duties However, becoming a publicly traded entity will not alter the exchange's daily operations or regulatory duties, Chauhan told Mint. "Being a listed company operationally does not really change a lot," he said. “In a way, you become more responsive, you try to think about what feedback is coming. But in any business, including ours, it is important to worry about the long term more than only the short term.” Addressing the balance between shareholder demands for quarterly revenue growth and the statutory obligations of a frontline market regulator, Chauhan said executive management remains focused on cost controls and long-term execution rather than short-term trading cycles. While transaction revenue fluctuates with broader market participation and trading volumes, Chauhan said regulatory measures in the derivatives market will not slow participation. “People think the market will slow down, but it historically never does,” he said while addressing the media. “India has a huge runway of new retail investors,” he added. On the question of revenue risk stemming from retail participation in equity derivatives, Chauhan said weekly options account for only 42% of the exchange's total transaction revenue. The remainder of transaction income is distributed across monthly options and futures contracts, providing product diversification across derivatives segments. "It is weekly options where NSE has around 42% revenue coming out. The remaining are in the monthly side on futures and options. So in a way, we have been able to diversify quite a lot." The NSE IPO, initially reported as India's largest-ever, was originally planned to raise around ₹30,000 crore by selling a 6% stake (149 million shares). The issue size was later cut to about 5.1% stake (126.4 million shares) after the valuation was reduced, and the IPO raise was subsequently reduced to ₹23,000 crore after investors pulled back, making it smaller than the country's largest public listing—Hyundai Motor India's ₹27,000-crore debut in 2025.
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