National Stock Exchange of India said on Tuesday that its consolidated net profit rose 22.8% to INR 25.78 billion in the three months to September, its first quarterly report since its INR 225.6 billion initial public offering. The shares barely reacted on Wednesday, trading around INR 1,810 on BSE late in the session, about 1.4% above the INR 1,785 offer price, Business Standard reported.

The muted response matters for investors in Asia weighing India's busy listings calendar. NSE is the country's largest stock exchange, and transaction charges made up about two-thirds of its income in the quarter, so its results are a direct read on the trading activity behind this year's IPO run. Six weeks after its debut, investors who bought at the offer price are roughly flat.

What NSE's September-quarter results show

The headline growth leans on a weak base. A year earlier, NSE set aside a one-time INR 12.97 billion for SEBI settlement fees tied to the colocation and dark fibre matters, which cut that quarter's profit to INR 20.98 billion, IANS reported at the time. Excluding the charge, profit in that period was INR 33.95 billion, so the latest figure is about 24% lower on that basis. That comparison overstates the decline, because the year-earlier quarter also included a gain of INR 12.01 billion on the sale of an investment in an associate company. Stripping out both items, NSE put its year-earlier pretax profit at INR 31.38 billion. Pretax profit in the latest quarter, which had no such items, was INR 34.25 billion, about 9% higher, according to the exchange's filing.

Profit fell about 17% from the June quarter, when NSE earned INR 31.20 billion on total income of INR 52.52 billion, the exchange said in July. Total income in the September quarter rose 9% from a year earlier to INR 45.54 billion, and revenue from operations rose 10.6% to INR 40.67 billion, NSE's filing showed.

Transaction charges rose 9% to INR 30.35 billion. Average daily turnover in the cash market climbed 24% to about INR 1.18 trillion, while premium turnover in equity options rose only 3% to about INR 479.8 billion a day. Equity futures were the weak spot: daily turnover fell to about INR 1.25 trillion from INR 1.41 trillion a year earlier, NSE's figures show. Jefferies, in a note cited by Business Standard, partly blamed a securities transaction tax increase earlier this year.

Jefferies called the numbers in line with expectations, kept its buy rating and raised its price target to INR 2,125 from INR 2,085. It said technology spending rose 23% from a year earlier and that NSE expects those costs to grow in the mid-teens. The broker kept its earnings forecasts for fiscal 2027 to fiscal 2029 largely unchanged, saying higher options turnover in the December quarter would be offset by lower other income.

How the NSE IPO has traded since listing

NSE's offer was a pure sale of 126.4 million existing shares by investors, so the exchange raised no new money. It was priced at INR 1,785 and drew bids for about 5.7 times the shares on offer. Qualified institutional buyers bid for 12.68 times their portion, while the retail book was covered 1.39 times, according to Kotak Neo.

The stock opened at INR 1,800 on BSE on Sept. 24, a premium of 0.84%, touched INR 1,878 and closed at INR 1,818, Business Standard reported. That gave the exchange a market value of INR 4.5 trillion. Because NSE's shares cannot trade on its own platform under current rules, the stock is quoted on BSE and the Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India. By Oct. 7 it had slipped to INR 1,743.35, 2.3% below the IPO price.

Brokers that started coverage on listing day set targets between INR 1,950 (PL Capital) and INR 2,050 (Emkay), with Macquarie at INR 1,965. Early shareholders have cashed in. Bank of Baroda, for one, booked a cash profit of INR 13.4 billion in the September quarter on selling part of its NSE holding, PTI reported.

On Wednesday, the stock opened at INR 1,795, dipped to INR 1,786 and then edged higher, with nearly 4 million shares changing hands by 3 p.m. India time, according to Business Standard.

M.K. Sons Fine Jewels debut fades to issue price

Wednesday's only new main-board listing followed a similar path. M.K. Sons Fine Jewels, a jewelry retailer with five showrooms in Maharashtra and Gujarat, opened at INR 171 on NSE, 5.6% above its INR 162 IPO price, and reached INR 175. It then gave up the gain and closed at INR 162.20 on both exchanges, according to data from Chittorgarh.com and Business Standard's IPO tracker.

The INR 2.75 billion offer combined INR 2.2 billion of new shares with a sale by promoter Ramchand Murlidhar Raimalani. It was subscribed 5.09 times, with non-institutional investors bidding for 14.12 times their portion and institutions only 1.84 times. The company plans to spend most of the new money on a new showroom in Maharashtra and the expansion of an existing one in Gujarat.

Results elsewhere in India's recent IPO class are mixed. Jio Platforms traded at about INR 1,422 on Wednesday, 27% above its INR 1,119 offer price, while EAAA India Alternatives stood about 1.5% above its INR 1,665 issue price, Business Standard's tracker showed.

For M.K. Sons, the next test comes on Dec. 1, when the lock-up ends on half of the INR 826 million of shares sold to anchor investors. The remainder is locked up until Jan. 30, 2027.