Jio Platforms closed its first day of trading 26.7% above its initial public offering price on Wednesday, valuing Reliance Industries' telecom and digital arm at INR 13.05 trillion and making it India's second-most valuable listed company.

The debut matters well beyond Mumbai. Jio is now a separately traded stock worth roughly $137 billion, a figure reported by Business Standard and, citing Bloomberg, by Mint. That ranks it fifth among the world's telecom companies by market value, behind China Mobile at $221 billion, Business Standard said. It was also, in the words of one Dubai-based investor, the first big test of a rule that lets very large Indian companies list by selling only a sliver of their shares, a route he expects other large groups to follow.

The stock opened at INR 1,358 on both the National Stock Exchange of India and BSE, 21.4% above the issue price of INR 1,119. It traded as high as INR 1,423.90 on the NSE and closed at INR 1,417.50 there and INR 1,417.35 on the BSE, according to Business Standard and exchange data compiled by Chittorgarh.com. On Thursday the shares rose another 5% in early trade to about INR 1,490, roughly 33% above the IPO price, Mint reported. They gave back most of that move to close at INR 1,421.60 on the NSE, up 0.3% on the day, according to Chittorgarh.com data.

Jio overtook rival Bharti Airtel in market value at Wednesday's close, according to Business Standard and Moneycontrol rankings. Its parent did not share in the rally: Reliance Industries fell 3.19% to INR 1,158 on Wednesday, leaving it worth INR 15.67 trillion and within 1% of its 52-week low, Business Standard reported. At that close, Jio's value equaled about 83% of Reliance's.

Jio Platforms Breaks a Pattern for India's Record IPOs

The INR 302 billion offering, which sold only new shares, drew bids for more than 22 times the stock on offer, and demand across the public issue and anchor book topped INR 7.4 trillion, according to Moneycontrol. The company plans to use INR 275 billion of the proceeds to prepay borrowings of its subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm, according to offer details compiled by Chittorgarh.com.

India's biggest deals have rarely paid off on day one. The four Indian IPOs of at least $2 billion this decade posted a weighted-average first-day decline of 9.9%, and only the National Stock Exchange of India's own listing last month rose, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Each of India's five largest IPOs before Jio was trading below its offer price heading into Jio's debut, Bloomberg reported, including Hyundai Motor India, whose INR 279 billion sale held the record until now. Jio broke a decade-long run of record-sized Indian IPOs listing at a loss, a Business Standard data analysis found.

Akash Ambani, Jio Platforms' managing director, said after the listing that the company aimed to reward shareholders over the next 50 years as Reliance had over nearly the last 50. His father, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani, said he hoped Jio would one day be counted among the world's great technology companies.

Analyst Targets Already Behind the Price

Two of the first brokerages to cover the stock were positive but are already behind the market. Nomura started Jio at buy with a target of INR 1,340, and Motilal Oswal Financial Services set a buy rating with an INR 1,350 target, Mint reported. Both targets sit below Wednesday's close.

Nomura said Jio holds about 42% of India's wireless subscribers, 60% of data traffic and 43% of home broadband, and expects the listing to push the company toward steady tariff increases. Motilal Oswal said the stock could trade at a premium to Bharti Airtel's India business, citing its market leadership and a free float of less than 3%.

Tariffs are the near-term question. Motilal Oswal now assumes a smartphone tariff increase of about 15% from March 2027, later than the December 2026 it expected earlier, while Ambit Capital still expects a 15% rise in December, Business Standard reported. Ravi Singh, chief research officer at Master Capital Services, said revenue growth, margins, average revenue per user and cash flow matter more than the listing-day jump, according to Mint.

What Jio's Debut Means for India's IPO Pipeline

Bankers said the reception could pull more large issuers to market. Amrendra Singh, group head of equity capital markets at SBI Capital Markets, said the debut had "helped restore investor confidence in large-ticket issuances," according to Bloomberg.

Indian companies have raised about $18.26 billion through IPOs this year, within reach of last year's record $22.36 billion, Bloomberg reported. About 113 companies hold regulatory approval to list and another 115 have filed draft papers. PhonePe, Pernod Ricard India, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, MakeMyTrip and Parle Products are considering or preparing listings, and Walmart-backed Flipkart is weighing one.

Part of what made Jio possible was a rule change that lets large issuers sell as little as 2.5% of their equity, Bloomberg reported. A small float also means fewer shares change hands, which Motilal Oswal cited as one reason the stock could hold a premium.

The next test comes quickly. Jio's board meets on Friday, Oct. 30, to approve results for the quarter and half year ended Sept. 30, its first as a listed company, and will hold an analyst meeting afterward, according to a filing with the exchanges. Its trading window for directors and other designated insiders stays shut until Nov. 1, the filing showed.