Underpricing in Initial Public Offerings: The Indian Evidence

Abstract

Underpricing in the initial public offerings (IPOs) is a well documented phenomenon in the stock markets. In this paper T P Madhusoodanan and M Thiripalraju analyse the Indian IPO market for the short-term as well as long-term underpricing. They also examine the impact of the issue size on the extent of underpricing in these offerings and the performance of the merchant bankers in pricing these issues. The study indicates that, in general, the underpricing in the Indian IPOs in the shortrun was higher than the experiences of other countries. In the long-run too, Indian offerings have given high returns compared to negative returns reported from other countries. The study also reveals that none of the merchant bankers showed any better pricing capabilities.