Chapters in IPOs & Primary Market
Chapter 4 of 5 · 5 min read
Subscription, allotment and listing day
What a subscription multiple means, how allotment works and what to expect on day one.
Subscription shows how many times the shares on offer were bid for. A 40x retail subscription means retail investors bid for forty times the quota. Categories are tracked separately: QIB (institutions), NII (non-institutional) and retail.
Allotment
If a category is oversubscribed, allotment is by lottery among valid applicants, so heavy demand lowers your odds. Funds for unallotted bids are unblocked after the basis of allotment is finalised.
Listing day
New listings open after a special pre-open session and are subject to circuit bands. Listing price versus issue price is the listing gain; what happens after depends on the business, valuation and market.
Key takeaways
- Subscription multiple signals demand by category.
- Oversubscription means a lottery; demand is not allotment.
- Listing gain and long-term return are different things.
Put it into practice
Open the live page on Market Intelligence and see this concept on real data.
Keep learning
- What is IPO GMP? · IPOs & Primary Market
Education only, not investment advice. Updated 2026-10-09.