Securities and exchange board of India (Sebi) Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Saturday that the regulator is at an advanced stage of issuing a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the national stock exchange's (NSE) proposed initial public offering (IPO). He signalled that the approval could be issued within this month.

“We are at a very advanced stage of issuing the NOC for the NSE IPO. It may be done within this month,” Pandey said at a press conference in Chennai.

The development raises hopes of progress on the long-pending listing of India’s largest stock exchange. In June last year, the NSE had reapplied to Sebi for a fresh NOC to revive its IPO plans.

In April 2025, Pandey had clarified in an exclusive interaction with Fortune India that the regulator was not opposed to the exchange’s listing. “I want to dispel the notion that Sebi has been reluctant to allow the IPO. The BSE is already listed, so there’s no reason why the NSE cannot be listed as well,” he had said.

The NSE IPO has been keenly awaited after its earlier attempt in 2016 was shelved following the co-location controversy. The exchange had filed its IPO papers with Sebi in December 2016, reportedly aiming to raise about ₹10,000 crore. The issue was expected to be an offer-for-sale of around 23% stake by existing shareholders, including Tiger Global Management, Aranda Investments, SAIF Partners (now Elevation Capital), Norwest Venture Partners, Citigroup Strategic Holdings, Goldman Sachs, and State Bank of India, among others.

According to NSE chief executive officer and managing director Ashish Chauhan, the IPO process could take eight to nine months after receiving regulatory clearance. “NSE had filed for settlement with Sebi in June 2025. Once the NOC is received, the exchange will need about four to five months to prepare its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), followed by another four to five months for Sebi’s review,” Chauhan told reporters in September last year.

Amid renewed listing buzz, the share price of the unlisted NSE has seen a notable jump in the grey market. Currently, NSE’s unlisted shares are trading at around ₹2,300 per share, while brokerages estimate the fair value in the unlisted market could be closer to ₹4,000 per share.