Shares of National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. slipped below their initial public offering price on the third day of trading, extending a lackluster start amid a broader equity selloff. The stock fell as much as 1.8% to 1,761 rupees on Monday, below the IPO price of 1,785 rupees. Shareholders sold 225.6 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) of stock in the offering, which saw shares eke out a gain of 1.9% on their first day of trading last week.

The IPO, India's second-biggest after Hyundai Motor India Ltd.'s 278.6 billion-rupee offering in 2024, drew a relatively subdued response, particularly from retail investors. The main book attracted bids worth less than 1 trillion rupees, with state-run Life Insurance Corp. of India emerging as the biggest bidder.

NSE's move to go public coincided with a selloff in Indian equities that has pushed the benchmark Nifty 50 Index to a seven-month low. While the listing gave investors access to a key part of India's fast-growing capital market, valuation concerns forced the company to scale back both the size of the offering and its price.

Analysts have also flagged near-term pressure on NSE's cash equities, derivatives and margin-trading volumes, with the recently introduced Closing Auction Session weighing on broader trading activity. Still, the bourse commands a premium to global peers, trading at about 30 times estimated fiscal 2029 earnings, roughly 65% above the 18 times for international exchanges, Macquarie said in a note last week.