New Delhi, June 19 -- The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has waited nearly a decade to go public. However, just as investors finally get the chance to own India's largest market infrastructure company, its FY26 earnings present a sobering reality.

Some experts believe the exchange's era of explosive profit growth is over. Following Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) crackdown on speculative trading, NSE's exceptionally high margins are expected to shrink back to historical averages, they said.

As the NSE prepares for a Rs.30,000-crore IPO that could value it at more than Rs.5 trillion, investors face a critical question: should FY26 be dismissed as an aberration, or accepted as the exchange's new normal?

The exchange's oper...