New Delhi, Dec. 17 -- The Indian primary market has been unusually active. Between December 2024 and early December 2025, as many as 344 companies made their public market debut, collectively raising Rs.1.54 lakh crore from investors. By any historical benchmark, this represents extraordinary capital formation-a moment where entrepreneurial ambition clearly met public market appetite.

But capital raised is only an input metric. For investors, the true test lies in the output: returns.

Measured from offer price to current market price, the median return across all 344 IPOs is 0%. In other words, half of the companies that listed over the past year are now trading below their issue price.

Listing-day illusion

At first glance, the listin...