Market Regulator SEBI To Approve NSE Public Listing - Key Details

Market watchdog Securities and Exchanges Board of India will give its nod to the country's biggest bourse, the National Stock Exchange, to launch its stock market offering.

NSE, also the world's most active derivatives exchange, has been in litigation with the Indian market regulator SEBI since 2019 when it was fined $122.04 million for failing to provide equitable access to all its trading members.

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NSE offered $160 million to settle the matter, according to media reports.

"We will soon issue a NOC (no objection certificate) to NSE and after that they will start preparation," Tuhin Kanta Pandey, SEBI chairman, told reporters.

The approval, which he said would be issued this month, will allow the NSE to prepare its IPO prospectus and is a crucial step in gaining IPO approval given the dispute. 

Ahead of this IPO update, NSE biggest hurdles were allegations linked to certain traders receiving preferential access to the exchange’s co-location servers between 2010 and 2014 through faster personal communication lines, leading to speedy trade execution.

NSE had a 92.7% share in the equity cash segment and 74.3% share in the equity options segment as of 30 November, as per exchange data.

Meanwhile, the SEBI head also said the regulator’s efforts to introduce a T+0 settlement framework, under which trades are settled on the same day, have seen limited traction. India became the first nation to adopt a T+1 settlement cycle for all listed stocks in January, 2023. 

After this, the market regulator also launched an optional T+0 settlement cycle in March 2024.