No More Euphoria As Investors Are Becoming Realistic In SME Counter

The number of IPOs on SME Platforms of Exchanges have been declining for some time now. Investors are not showing much of the interest especially in QIB categories. Ditto: HNIs and Retail category investors. Merchant Bankers even after getting the approval want to be fully sure about the success of the public issue and therefore there is delay in opening the issue. It has been also observed that on the day of listing there is huge selling happening which is creating downward pressure on the price of the stocks. Recently few companies got listed at discount to the IPO price and this is further keeping the investors away from the primary market. According to Ajay Thakur, the brain behind BSE SME Exchange, who has now set up his own outfit TGI SME Capital Advisors, “In the first six months of the current calendar year SME Platforms have observed lacklustre performance as response from all categories of investors were lukewarm. However, from last week of June things have started looking up. Most of the SME companies are getting listed at a premium and naturally there is heavy selling on the day of listing. But, the good development is that one is not seeing the euphoria like we saw in 2024. This indicates that Investors are maturing and the expectations are reasonable. Greed is the biggest killer for everyone whether investors or intermediaries or anyone. Intermediaries also need to do proper due diligence before SME companies can tap the capital market.