Bollywood, cricket stars pile into NSE shares ahead of IPO | Stock Market News

Mumbai: Bollywood stars and cricketing legends are betting on the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) much-awaited public debut, buying its unlisted shares in recent months in the hope of cashing in on a potentially lucrative IPO (initial public offering). NSE’s IPO is slated for later this year.

Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Aamir Khan, Anil Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan and Gauri Khan are among the celebrities who have recently bought NSE’s unlisted shares, three people with knowledge of the development said.

The rush comes as investors size up what could be one of India’s biggest stock-market listings, even as options trading—responsible for the bulk of NSE’s transaction revenue—faces tighter regulatory scrutiny.

NSE, the country’s largest stock exchange, filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the market regulator in June for an IPO comprising an offer for sale of up to 149 million shares by existing institutional shareholders, representing about 6% of NSE’s paid-up capital. No fresh equity capital will be issued as part of the transaction, Mint had reported earlier.

“Some of the top celebs have invested in NSE shares in the last two-three months with an eye on making bumper returns through the proposed IPO,” one of the people said, requesting anonymity.

Notably, those who buy unlisted shares cannot sell them for six months of the listing.

Queries sent to the spokespersons of the celebrities named above remained unanswered till press time.

For wealthy investors buying NSE shares in the unlisted market, one factor is the exchange’s more attractive valuation relative to its listed rival BSE, despite NSE’s market value being nearly four times that of BSE’s.

BSE shares were trading at ₹3,605 on Tuesday, giving the exchange a market capitalization of ₹1.47 trillion and a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 51.98 times, according to data from NSE, on which it is listed.

Comparatively, the NSE, with a market capitalisation of ₹5.5 trillion in the unlisted market, trades at a P/E multiple of 49.48 times, based on an indicative price of ₹2,035 on UnlistedZone, an online information platform for unlisted and pre-IPO shares.

“Brokers who deal in unlisted shares use the compelling valuation argument to attract interest from their uber-rich clients,” said independent market analyst Ambareesh Baliga. “Also, prospective investors go by past performance, which is very impressive in NSE’s case.”

NSE shares have gained 175% over the past three years, according to UnlistedZone.

The exchange’s dominance of India’s markets is a big part of that investment case. NSE commanded a 93.1% share of equity cash trading at the end of June, leaving just 6.9% for BSE. In equity options, the most important source of transaction revenue for both exchanges, NSE had a 69.4% share, with the rest going to BSE, according to exchange data.

Its dominance is even more pronounced in the recently introduced closing auction session for stocks with futures and options contracts, where NSE accounted for as much as 99% for much of last week.

However, some market veterans sounded a note of caution, given the regulatory tightening on weekly options trading since November 2024 on account of huge losses suffered by retail investors.

“The animal that generates much of transaction revenues for exchanges (NSE and BSE) and taxes for the government also accounts for humungous losses by individual investors and traders,” noted ace investor Shankar Sharma.

“If 91% of retail lose and 8% make negligible profits trading such a product, it can’t be counted as a money-spinner for very long, especially after it has already seen four-five years of stupendous growth by volumes,” Sharma added.

A Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) study of July 2025 showed that individual traders suffered losses of ₹1.05 trillion trading derivatives in FY25, up from a loss of ₹74,812 crore in FY24.

This forced the regulator to triple contract size, limit weekly expiries to one per exchange from multiple earlier, increase risk margins on the option expiry day, etc, from November 2024. The study for FY26 is awaited.

Data from the exchange showed that equity options contributed 76.55% of its transaction revenues of ₹13,057 crore in FY26, which in turn accounted for 79% of the exchange’s consolidated operating revenues of ₹16,601 crore.

Sneha Shah is the editor for deals and startups at Mint. Starting off her career in India’s financial capital as a cub reporter for the Mid-day newspaper in the mid-2000s, she later moved on to decode balance sheets and follow the money trail for some of the leading pink publications in the country. She has been covering India’s deals ecosystem for nearly two decades now, closely tracking private- and public-market funding, startups, private equity, venture capital, and investment banking. From breaking some of the biggest deal stories of the past to doing some incisive deep-dives into the latest trends and turnarounds in the industry, she has witnessed the phenomenal growth and transformation of the country’s investment ecosystem from really close quarters. A graduate in journalism, she has worked with The Economic Times, Financial Chronicle, VCCircle and Mid-Day before starting her second stint at Mint in 2022. As a keen observer of India’s startups ecosystem, she aspires to write a book some day, chronicling some of the most inspiring stories the industry has seen so far in its remarkable journey.

Ram Sahgal is a deputy editor at Mint. He has over 20 years of experience in journalism, with previous roles at The Intelligent Investor, Bombay Times, The Economic Times, and The New Indian Express. Between his media roles, he briefly worked at a commodities exchange before returning to his true passion, business journalism. Ram graduated in liberal arts from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, where he studied films, which explains his move to Bombay Times, where he covered the film industry during the rise of Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt. He took a leap of faith to transfer to The Economic Times, and thanks to his restless mind, later moved to cover the commodities beat. Over the past three years, Ram has been tracking the stock markets at Mint. His focus areas include writing about market infrastructure institutions, brokerages, derivatives, and related regulations. His hobbies include spotting trains and understanding the locomotives that power them. In his free time, he takes his octogenarian mother out for drives and goes to the cinema with her on weekends. If he has a dream, it is to write a screenplay for a movie. For now, he enjoys viewing market data on NSE and BSE, observing the shifting mood of Mr Market, and conversing with market experts.

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