Holding back or delaying the listing of National Stock Exchange (NSE) may not look good on market regulator SEBI any more since the unlisted shares of the exchange are witnessing off market traders at a feverish pitch. Websites like 'Sharechart.com' and 'Unlistedzone.com' among the many others are showing NSE's market-cap (M-Cap) at a whooping Rs 4.70 lakh crore (USD 56.6 billion).
Many websites and apps have a screener similar to the exchanges that display the full particulars of a company including the stock price based on last traded price, Price to Earnings, Book Value, 52-week high low, lot size, etc. NSE had set a record date of 2 November for its recent bonus issue of 4:1 shares and had a last traded at Rs 1900 a piece (i.e. Rs 9500 as per share without bonus) in the off market deals. That is a staggering M-cap of more than $ 5.6 billion (Rs 4.75 lakh crore) making it one of India's top 10 most valued companies.
Like many other unlisted company shares, NSE shares are already available in demat form in CDSL and NSDL, the top two depositories, and are freely exchanged between buyers and sellers. The only thing NSE share trading now lacks is same day settlement, since it takes a few weeks for the permission to transfer the off market shares to come.
In 2014, before the Narendra Modi led BJP government came to power, NSE shares were changing hands at around Rs 1200 per share but in ten-years, the value has multiplied by more than 7x or 8 x considering bonus and dividends.
A Value Deal
At the current price, the websites are displaying NSE's PE, a measure of value, at 55.95 compared to the rival exchange BSE's trailing PE at around 100. According to analysts, NSE's PE could further fall to around 38 based on the exchange's results declared on 4 November.
On Monday, the NSE said that its consolidated net profit for the September quarter zoomed up by 57 percent to Rs 3,137 crore from a year earlier. The stock exchange said its consolidated total income rose 25 per cent to Rs 5,023 crore. NSE's operating EBITDA margin rose 74 per cent to Rs 3,344 crore as against 64 percent in the year-ago period.
"Apart from trading revenue, the revenue from operations was also supported by other revenue lines, which mainly includes clearing services, data centre and connectivity charges, listing services, index services and data services," NSE said in a statement on 4 November.
NSE said it contributed Rs 30,130 crore to the exchequer in the first half of fiscal year 2025. It includes Rs 24,755 crore in securities transaction tax (STT) and commodities transaction tax (CTT), Rs 2,099 crore in stamp duty, Rs 1,333 crore in Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) fees, Rs 1,119 crore in income tax, and Rs 824 crore in goods and services tax (GST).
"Out of the STT/CTT of Rs 24,755 crore, 64 per cent is from cash market segment and 36 per cent is from equity derivatives segment," said the exchange.
NSE Listing
NSE is awaiting approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to proceed with its public listing plans. The NSE CEO, Ashish Kumar Chauhan, has stated that the exchange is awaiting a no-objection certificate (NOC) from SEBI to reapply for its IPO approval. India's retail investors have lost big time opportunity of trading in the NSE shares as its m-cap rose by nearly 8x to 10x in the past ten years.
Notably, NSE's listing permission was delayed as the exchange was involved in controversies related to co-location trading scandal where it was alleged to have given unfair access to high-speed traders. But SEBI has cleared NSE of allegations of collusion in these cases.
