As global markets tremble under the weight of fresh tariff tensions, India’s primary market has gone unusually quiet. Between April 7 and April 15, not a single new IPO is scheduled to open – neither in the mainboard segment nor in the SME space. The only movement this week comes from earlier SME IPOs now set to list on exchanges.
SME listings light up a quiet week
While the IPO pipeline has run dry, there’s still some buzz on the BSE SME platform. Three companies – Retaggio Industries, Infonative Solutions, and Spinaroo Commercial are scheduled to make their debut this week.
- Retaggio Industries will be the first to list, with its shares expected to hit the BSE SME on Monday, April 7.
- Infonative Solutions and Spinaroo Commercial, both of which are finalising their basis of allotment today, are likely to list on Tuesday, April 8.
This flurry of activity offers some relief in an otherwise silent IPO season. The mainboard has remained inactive for over a month. The last company to make a public offering was Quality Power Electrical Equipments, whose shares were listed on February 24 this year.
Markets in freefall: Trump’s tariffs trigger global rout
The silence in India’s IPO market is not happening in isolation. It comes at a time when global stock markets are gripped by panic, with the US President Donald Trump’s latest move – a sweeping reciprocal tariff policy, branded as “Liberation Day.”
Since the baseline tariffs kicked in on April 5, stock markets across the world have been in freefall. From Wall Street to Dalal Street, red is the dominant color.
A global bloodbath on the bourses
Investors have been stunned by the carnage – Dow Jones, S&P 500, and NASDAQ in the US, FTSE 100 in the UK, DAX in Germany, Nikkei in Japan, and Nifty and Sensex in India. All these indices have plunged sharply, erasing trillions of dollars in market value. What was meant to be a strong policy move against unfair trade has now turned into what many are calling a stock market Armageddon.
India feels the heat
The Indian markets have not been spared. As global uncertainty soars, domestic investors are growing nervous. After a brief recovery in March, the Indian equity benchmarks snapped their two-week winning streak. The Nifty 50 fell 2.61% during the week, closing at 22,904.45. The Sensex dropped 2.65%, sliding to 75,364.69.
On Friday alone, the Nifty and Sensex were down 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively.
For the entire week, Sensex lost 2,050.23 points and Nifty declined by 614.8 points
With this, uncertainty has become the new normal. The phrase “When America sneezes, the world catches a cold” has never rung truer.