New Delhi, Sept. 15 -- National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) offer-for-sale issue pricing comes as a rude shock to investors buying the shares in the unlisted market. The price band of Rs.1,700-1,785 is nearly 10% lower than the price before the announcement.

Given the bearish tone in leading equity benchmarks and a large issue of Rs.22,560 crore, NSE's management may have thought of making pricing attractive. The stock's price-to-earnings multiple, based on FY26 earnings is 43-a steep 23% discount to BSE's 56. This may seem tempting for investors, but looking at valuation based on FY26 earnings may not give a true picture, given NSE's far slower year-on-year net profit growth of 11% for the June quarter (Q1FY27), versus 65% for BSE...