India’s primary market has shown strength in the financial year 2025–26, according to NSE’s Market Pulse report for March 2026. The mainboard IPO segment has performed well, with 99 companies launching public issues and raising a total of Rs 1.65 lakh crore between April and February. This amount surpasses the previous year’s fundraising of Rs 1.62 lakh crore from 79 IPOs, indicating sustained investor interest in major public offerings.
The SME segment, however, experienced a slight slowdown. In FY26, 105 IPOs were launched on the NSE Emerge platform, raising Rs 5,121 crore, which is lower than the previous year’s Rs 7,000 crore raised from 163 SME IPOs. Despite a decrease in the number of IPOs, the total funds raised across both segments in FY26 reached Rs 1.70 lakh crore, slightly higher than the Rs 1.69 lakh crore raised by 242 companies in the previous year, mainly due to larger issue sizes.
The report also noted a rise in the average size of SME IPOs, indicating a maturing fundraising ecosystem. The average issue size has increased from Rs 13 crore in FY20 to Rs 44 crore in FY25, and further to around Rs 50 crore in FY26. Financial services companies dominated mainboard fundraising, contributing 34% of the total, followed by consumer discretionary firms at 31% and industrial companies at 11%. In the SME segment, industrial companies led with a 36% share, followed by consumer discretionary at 23% and materials at 10%.
Regionally, Maharashtra-based companies raised the highest funds at Rs 5,830 crore, with Gujarat-based firms following closely at Rs 4,794 crore and companies from Delhi at Rs 3,643 crore. Maharashtra also led in terms of market capitalization of listed SME firms at Rs 48,428 crore, closely trailed by Gujarat and Delhi.
