Amagi Media Labs Ltd made a muted debut on the stock exchanges on Wednesday, listing at a sharp discount to its issue price, underscoring a visible shift in sentiment across India’s primary markets.
Shares of Bengaluru-based cloud SaaS company debuted at ₹318 on the National Stock Exchange and ₹317 on the BSE, nearly 12 per cent below its IPO issue price of ₹361.
However, the stock managed to close at ₹348.25 on the NSE and at ₹348 on the BSE, 4 per cent below the offer price.
Amagi’s ₹1,789-crore initial public offering was subscribed 30.22 time. The demand was led by non-institutional investors, whose portion was subscribed 37.36 times, followed by qualified institutional buyers at 33.77 times. Retail individual investors subscribed their quota 9.31 times.
Ahead of the issue, the company had raised about ₹805 crore from anchor investors. The IPO comprised a fresh issue of shares worth ₹816 crore and an offer-for-sale of 2.7 crore shares valued at ₹972.6 crore at the upper end of the price band. At ₹361 per share, Amagi was valued at over ₹7,800 crore.
Tone of primary markets
Market participants view the discount listing as more than a stock-specific event. Kush Gupta, Director at SKG Investment & Advisory, said the debut marks a clear inflection point for India’s IPO landscape.
It signals that the IPO market is no longer being supported by blind liquidity or ‘listing gains expectation’ alone, Gupta said.
Echoing similar caution, Sunil Nyati, MD at Swastika Investmart, said Amagi’s discount listing should be seen as a structural shift rather than a collapse of the IPO market.
According to Gupta, the listing reflects tighter risk appetite, greater valuation sensitivity and a growing preference for secondary market opportunities over primary market excitement. “What makes this signal even more meaningful is that this discount listing happened despite Amagi’s strong positioning and global footprint. Even higher quality business models are no longer insulated if pricing and sentiment aren’t aligned,” he added.
Visible stress
Gupta pointed out that the stress visible in SME IPOs over the past two years is now beginning to surface in mainboard issues as well. Nearly 37 per cent of SME IPOs in 2025 closed below their issue price on listing day, compared with about 9 per cent in 2024, indicating that the easy-money phase had already ended in that segment.
As SME returns deteriorated, retail investors naturally became more cautious, and that caution is now starting to show up in mainboard issues too, especially where valuations look aggressive or near-term earnings visibility is weak, he said.
Data trends reinforce this view. Nearly half of mainboard IPOs listed between 2021 and 2025 are currently trading below their issue prices, a factor that has steadily eroded confidence among retail participants.
We are transitioning from a momentum market to a merit market, Nyati of Swastika Investmart said.
Primary markets: Outlook for 2026
However, market experts caution against reading it as a broader collapse of the IPO market. Instead, the phase ahead is expected to be one of normalisation, according to Gupta.
Despite volatility in listings, 2025 emerged as a record year for fundraising, with mainboard IPOs raising around ₹1.75 lakh crore. Looking ahead, reports project that India’s equity capital markets could see nearly ₹4 lakh crore of capital raising in 2026, supported by a strong pipeline of companies, private equity exits and India’s positioning as one of the most active global IPO markets, Gupta pointed out.
However, the character of returns is expected to change. IPO volumes may remain healthy, but performance will become more polarised. “2026 may be big for fundraising, but tougher for easy listing gains and that’s actually healthy because it restores long term credibility to the IPO market, Gupta said.
Nyati of Swastika Investmart stressed that the outlook for 2026 is cautiously optimistic. “We are facing a massive supply pipeline with heavyweights like Reliance Jio, NSE, and potentially PhonePe eyeing the market. This creates an oversupply of paper chasing limited liquidity,” Pamnani added.