India’s capital markets are enjoying another stellar year, with stockmarket listings surging against the backdrop of a fast-growing economy increasingly led by artificial intelligence.
In the year to October 15, $16.2bn was raised in IPOs, ranking India fourth worldwide, behind only the US, Hong Kong and mainland China, according to Dealogic data.
The Bombay and National Stock Exchanges are the fourth and fifth busiest IPO markets this year, the data provider says, behind in ascending order the Nasdaq, New York Stock Exchange and Hong Kong’s main board.
In the latest big ticket offering, LG Electronics India saw its shares soar 48% on Tuesday, after the South Korean group’s local unit raised $1.3bn. It drew a host of blue chip anchor investors including BlackRock, Fidelity International and sovereign wealth funds from the likes of Norway, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
LG’s first day performance was the best ever for deal of more than Rp100bn ($1.13bn). It was beaten to the market by a single day by Tata Capital, which raised $1.75bn but received a muted welcome from investors on Monday. October is on track to be the country’s busiest ever month for IPOs.
Bankers believe India’s moment in the sun will continue for years to come, as supply of deals begins to catch up with soaring demand — onshore and offshore — for Indian equities. “The pipeline is the largest on record, across domestic and international names and industries,” says Harish Rahman, co-head of Asia equity capital markets at Citigroup. “India is likely to be the world’s most active ECM market, along with Hong Kong, over the next year.”
The future looks bright for south Asia’s largest economy. Global investors are attracted to India’s strong fundamentals, including a business-friendly prime minister in Narendra Modi and strong retail and macroeconomic data.
In its latest World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund tips output to expand 6% in 2025 and 6.2% in 2026, outpacing every other major economy.
In its Global Trends report for the third quarter, EY points to India’s “remarkable [capital markets] momentum”, lauding domestic regulators’ focus on prioritising IPOs in IT, digital infrastructure and fintech.
Zennon Kapron, strategic growth adviser at Es Magico, an AI advisory firm in Mumbai and founder of Singapore-based fintech advisory firm Kapronasia, reckons India is “one of three” major economies, along with the US and China, that will set the pace and tone on artificial intelligence for decades to come.
In Stanford’s latest Global Vibrancy Tool, which tracks countries that lead the way in AI, India ranks fourth, albeit a significant way behind the US. Technology giants seem to agree: on Tuesday, Google’s parent company Alphabet said it would invest $15bn to build an AI hub in southern India.
Not all countries are enjoying a stellar 2024. Europe, at least in capital markets, continues to lag badly. In Bloomberg’s list of the best performing IPO venues in 2025, only one European country, Sweden, cracks the top 10. The UK failed to make the top 20, as did France, placing both behind the likes of Mexico and Oman, and offering a fresh reminder of London’s diminishment as a global financial hub.