Just 35 winners in 198 IPOs: How the IPO boom hit Indian investors

Initial public offers (IPOs) promise lottery-like upside, but most come with fine print. While a few reward patient investors, the majority enjoy a fleeting listing-day pop, ride the euphoria of a bull market — and then quietly fizzle out within two years. The 2024 IPO cohort is proving that point the hard way. By early 2026, most have failed to make money, leaving investors bruised. Over the past six months, the S&P BSE IPO Index has slid 8%, even as the Sensex climbed 2% — a stark reminder that IPOs are creatures of the market cycle. They soar when sentiment is hot, but when the tide turns, newly listed stocks are usually the first to sink.
In 1995, MS Shoes launched a massive IPO to raise INR700 crore for a hotel and yarn project. The company promoter Pawan Sachdeva, a Delhi entrepreneur, had taken over the shoe business of his father and wanted to expand the same. The company got listed in September 1992, and in 1995, came up with a rights-cum-public issue that devolved as investigations revealed that the share price during the time of the IPO was manipulated. When the company crashed, retail investors had lost around INR270 crore, a huge sum way back then.