At present, the behavior of investors in the Indian stock market has completely changed, which is surprising in many ways. Usually, retail investors buy shares for the long term, but the situation is becoming different in the financial year 2026. Data shows that investors are increasingly withdrawing their money from the secondary market, i.e. old shares. So far this year, he has sold shares worth about Rs 4,729 crore, which is the biggest sale in the last 6 years. The interesting thing is that this money is not going out of the market, but is moving around and going straight into the IPO market. Investors have not only withdrawn money from the secondary market, but at the same time have invested a staggering Rs 30,000 crore in the upcoming IPOs.
This is a clear indication that now people are running after ‘listing gains’ i.e. first day’s profit more than the growth of the company. NSE data shows that the maximum selling of Rs 12,061 crore took place in October 2025, which shows that investors are raising cash for the new IPO by selling old shares.
There are more offers for sale in IPO, so be careful
There is an alarm bell ringing in this whole game, which is very important for a common investor to understand. Quoting Hitesh Jain of YES Securities, Economic Times published that the share of “Offer for Sale” (OFS) in new IPOs is increasing. In 2025, 63% of the money raised through IPO was OFS.
What this means in simple language is that this money is not being used for the development or expansion of the company, rather the old owners (promoters) and private equity investors of the company are selling their shares and making profits and exiting. When the owners of the company themselves are selling the goods at high valuations, new investors should be careful whether they are buying shares at an expensive price? Overall, out of Rs 1.5 lakh crore, two-thirds of the money has not gone into the company’s account but into the pockets of old investors.
What is IPO flipping, its growing craze
Market veteran Deepan Mehta calls this trend IPO Flipping. He says that a large section of investors are now focusing only on IPOs. These people invest money in IPO by borrowing or from different accounts and sell it and exit as soon as the listing is done.
Mehta believes that this strategy is currently making people good money, hence the crowd here is increasing. However, he also warned that shares of companies like Ola Electric, Urban Company and Lenskart have fallen after listing, due to which people suffered losses. But Mehta believes that between every two-three expensive IPOs, there are one or two good companies which are actually earning profits, hence investors are ready to take the risk.
Investors should stay away from companies with high valuations
On the other hand, market expert Sandeep Sabharwal has advised investors to proceed with caution. He believes that a strange ‘valuation disconnect’ has emerged in the market. The valuations of the new companies which are bringing IPO are quite high, whereas the small and midcap companies already present in the market are getting cheaper than them and their business is also accumulated. Sabharwal clearly said that a wise investor should invest money where there is value and not just on hype. He told that in the recent past, he found only LG’s IPO good, after that nothing special. This is the situation when Nifty is close to its all-time high, but many small stocks have fallen 9-12% from their upper levels.
What is the right strategy for investors?
Talking about the future of the market and the strategy for 2026, Apoorva Seth of SAMCO Securities has been quoted as saying that investors should keep a balanced approach. He suggested that investors should keep their money divided: 40% in equities (shares), 30% in bullion, 10% in debt (bonds), and the remaining 20% in cash, so that purchases can be made when the market falls.
Apoorva Seth is optimistic about the market and feels that increasing liquidity (money) can take the market higher. He estimates that in the year 2026, Nifty may trade in the range of 24,500 to 27,500. Now it remains to be seen whether this love of retail investors for IPOs makes them rich, or whether the big players manage to exit by selling their assets.
