Key Takeaways from IPOs listed in 2018 - IPO Stack
Welcome to IPO Stack’s complete tracker for all IPOs listed in India in 2018. This page documents the full lifecycle of every public issue from that year — from the offer price during the subscription window, through the opening price on listing day, all the way to where each stock trades today.
Whether you are reviewing a holding from this vintage, studying how different sectors and business models have performed over the long run, or simply building your knowledge of how the Indian primary market works across cycles, this page gives you the complete picture in one place.
2018 was a year of contrasts for the Indian IPO market. 24 companies went public — fewer than in the peak years of 2016 and 2017 — but the class included several landmark issues across defence, aviation, banking, asset management, healthcare, and manufacturing.
The year was also shaped by an increasingly cautious market environment in the second half, with the IL&FS crisis of September 2018 creating significant turbulence for new listings and financial sector sentiment.
Despite the difficult backdrop, the 2018 cohort has produced some of the most extraordinary long-term performers in this entire tracker — including one stock that has returned over 2,100% from its listing price. Alongside those multi-baggers sit a cluster of financial sector and auto-ancillary IPOs that have significantly disappointed long-term holders.
One company — Karda Construction Ltd — has undergone name changes and is included in the data table for historical reference only.
How to Read this:
Issue Price is the per-share price at which the company offered its shares to the public during the IPO.
Listing Price is the stock exchange opening price on the day the company was officially listed. Comparing this with the Issue Price tells you whether the IPO had a strong debut (listing above issue price) or a weak one (listing below issue price).
CMP (Current Market Price) is the latest available trading price of the stock. This tells you where the stock price is today, years after the listing.
Chg Since Listing is arguably the most important column on this page. It shows the percentage change between the Listing Price and the CMP — meaning how much an investor who bought at the listing and held until today has gained or lost. This is the core metric IPO Stack tracks across every year.
Subscribed tells you how many times the issue was oversubscribed during the bidding period. A higher subscription multiple means stronger investor demand at the time of the IPO. A lower subscription means low demand.
52-Week High / Low gives you context on recent price action — whether a stock is currently trading near its annual peak or its annual bottom. This allows investors to make up their minds to invest or not.
CHG 1D points at the change that occurred in 1 day. It is the comparision on the price of stock on CMP (current market price) vs pClose (previous day price at market close) %CHG indicates the percentage of change that occurred in 1 day.
Key Takeaways from IPO 2018 by IPOStack:
The 2018 defence cluster is the most remarkable sector story across the entire IPO Stack archive. GRSE (+2,153%), Amber (+550%), HAL (+235%), Midhani (+285%), and BDL (+243%) have all delivered extraordinary long-term returns. Four of these five — GRSE, HAL, Midhani, and BDL — were subscribed between 0.99× and 1.29×, listed at discounts to their issue prices, and were near-universally ignored by the market at the time of listing. No other cluster across this entire tracker illustrates more clearly that the primary market can be spectacularly wrong in its initial assessment of long-term business value.
The most subscribed IPO of 2018 — Apollo Micro Systems at 248.51× — is down 54% from listing. The least subscribed issue — Garden Reach at 1.02× — is up 2,153%. This is the most extreme version of the inverse subscription-performance relationship that has now been documented across six consecutive years in this tracker. The pattern is no longer coincidental — it is structural. Extreme subscription reflects crowded positioning in popular narratives, and crowded positioning at high valuations almost always underperforms over time.
Financial sector IPOs from 2018 have been deeply disappointing as a group. Bandhan Bank (−64.59%), IndoStar Capital (−63.71%), IRCON (−68.29%), and ICICI Securities (−76.83%) have all generated severe losses. The IL&FS crisis, which erupted in September 2018 — during the listing period for several of these companies — fundamentally changed the operating environment for NBFCs and private sector financials in ways that were not priced into their IPO valuations. CreditAccess Grameen (+210.41%) is the sole standout exception, distinguished by its high-quality microfinance portfolio and disciplined credit culture.
Specialty chemicals have again been among the most reliable wealth creators. Fine Organic (+425.15%) and Galaxy Surfactants (+27.21%) continue the pattern established across previous years. Niche, high-margin specialty chemical businesses with global client relationships and strong pricing power have consistently been among the best long-term IPO investments in India — and they almost never attract the subscription excitement that their long-term returns ultimately justify.
The healthcare sector has maintained its consistent performance record. Aster DM Healthcare (+256.56%) and Lemon Tree Hotels (+78.57%, a hospitality adjacent play) have both delivered solid returns. Alongside CreditAccess Grameen, these represent the 2018 class’s quiet long-term compounders — businesses with clear growth runways, identifiable competitive moats, and no reliance on policy or commodity cycles.
TCNS Clothing at −91.11% is the starkest reminder of consumer retail risk. Physical ethnic wear retail — just like the apparel and mall-based entertainment businesses from previous cohorts — has been decimated by e-commerce competition and the COVID-19 shutdown of physical retail. Monte Carlo (2014), and now TCNS (2018), are the retail fashion entries in a growing list of consumer-facing businesses on this tracker where the IPO valuation significantly overestimated the durability of the brick-and-mortar advantage.
Top performers since listing:
- 🟢 Garden Reach Shipbuilders (GRSE) — +2,153% (subscribed just 1.02× — the greatest underdog story in this tracker)
- 🟢 Amber Enterprises — +550.85% (165× subscribed and still delivered — rare exception)
- 🟢 Fine Organic Industries — +425.15% (8.77× subscribed, quiet listing, huge compounder)
- 🟢 Midhani — +285.06% (subscribed 1.21×, listed at discount)
- 🟢 Aster DM Healthcare — +256.57%
- 🟢 HAL — +235.57% (barely subscribed at 0.99×!)
- 🟢 Bharat Dynamics — +243.11% (subscribed 1.29×)
Worst performers since listing:
- 🔴 TCNS Clothing — −91.11% (worst of class, disrupted by e-commerce)
- 🔴 ICICI Securities — −76.83%
- 🔴 IRCON International — −68.29%
- 🔴 Bandhan Bank — −64.59%
- 🔴 IndoStar Capital — −63.71%
About IPOStack:
IPOStack is a blog dedicated to tracking the complete lifecycle of Indian IPOs — from the DRHP filing stage, through the subscription period and listing day, all the way to the current market price years later. Every year has its own dedicated tracker page so you can study IPO performance step by step.
Use these pages to build a historical understanding of how the Indian primary market has evolved, which sectors have rewarded investors, and how listing-day price action compares to long-term value creation.
Disclaimer: All data on this page is for informational and educational purposes only. IPO Stack does not provide investment advice. Please do your own due diligence before making any investment decisions. Market prices are subject to change.