Mumbai: Shares of Jio Platforms extended their spectacular run on the stock market on Thursday, rising by about 5 per cent on the second day of trading after a blockbuster debut. The stock touched a high of Rs 1,490 on the Bombay Stock Exchange and Rs 1,489.70 on the National Stock Exchange, taking the company's market capitalisation past Rs 13.7 lakh crore and cementing its position as India's second-most valuable listed company, behind only its parent, Reliance Industries.
The second-day surge followed a debut that had already stunned market watchers. Jio Platforms listed on Wednesday, October 28, at Rs 1,358 on both exchanges, a premium of 21.36 per cent over its initial public offering price of Rs 1,119. By the close of the first day, the shares had settled at Rs 1,417.35 on the BSE, up 26.66 per cent from the issue price, and at Rs 1,417.50 on the NSE, up 26.67 per cent.
At Thursday's high, the stock was trading more than 33 per cent above the price at which IPO investors had bought it, a gain of roughly Rs 370 per share in just two sessions.
The rally has transformed the pecking order of Indian corporate valuations. At Wednesday's close, Jio Platforms commanded a market capitalisation of about Rs 13 lakh crore. Reliance Industries itself was valued at Rs 15.67 lakh crore on that day, and Jio Financial Services at Rs 1.35 lakh crore, taking the combined market value of the Reliance Group to about Rs 30 lakh crore, according to exchange data.
On that measure, the Reliance Group overtook the Tata Group to become India's biggest conglomerate by market valuation, while Jio Platforms alone eclipsed Bharti Airtel to become the country's second-most valuable listed firm.
The scale of the offering helps explain the intensity of the market response. Jio Platforms raised Rs 30,213 crore through its IPO, which was entirely a fresh issue of 27 crore shares priced in a band of Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119. The issue was fully subscribed within 100 minutes of opening and eventually received bids for 22.19 times the shares on offer, with total demand across the public issue and anchor investor placement crossing Rs 7.4 lakh crore.
It also became the first public offering globally to cross one crore applications, surpassing the previous reported record of around 97 lakh applications set by Waaree Energies.
Demand was strongest from institutional investors. Qualified institutional buyers subscribed their portion 70.55 times, bidding for over 345 crore shares against 49.01 crore shares reserved for the category. The non-institutional investor segment was subscribed 14.09 times, the retail portion 2.72 times, the employee category 2.93 times and the shareholder category 7.60 times.
Such broad-based demand, combined with a very small free float of below 3 per cent of shares available for public trading, has created a scarcity premium: investors who missed out on allotment have had limited opportunities to build positions, so even modest buying interest can move the price sharply.
Brokerages moved quickly to initiate coverage on the listing day itself, with positive views that have added fuel to the rally. Motilal Oswal Financial Services arrived at an equity value of Rs 12.4 lakh crore after factoring in the company's net debt and IPO proceeds, and initiated coverage with a buy rating and a target price of Rs 1,350.
Elara Capital also initiated coverage with a buy rating, setting a target of Rs 1,367, and forecast a top-line compound annual growth rate of 13 per cent, an EBITDA growth rate of 16 per cent and a profit growth rate of 23 per cent during the period from FY26 to FY29.
Analysts argue that Reliance Jio will extend its market leadership in India's wireless industry, which is expected to grow at about 10 per cent a year over the same period, while rising adoption of digital services and enterprise solutions will benefit the group company.
The business behind the listing is vast. Reliance Jio is India's largest wireless operator by both subscriber base and wireless revenue, with 533.3 million subscribers as of June 2026 and a share of nearly 60 per cent of the country's data traffic. Jio Platforms houses the group's digital services businesses, spanning telecom, broadband, digital content and enterprise technology.
Its listing therefore gives public market investors direct exposure to the digital consumption story that has reshaped Indian telecom over the past decade, from cheap data to streaming, payments and cloud services.
Market watchers, however, are also urging caution. A stock that rises 33 per cent in two sessions can correct just as quickly, particularly when the free float is tiny and valuations are stretched. At the upper end of the IPO price band, the company was valued at around 33 times its FY26 earnings and 14 to 15 times its FY26 enterprise value to EBITDA, according to analyst estimates cited in market reports.
Some brokerages have set target prices below the current market price, suggesting that the early enthusiasm may have run ahead of fundamentals. Investors who bought at the listing price of Rs 1,358 were sitting on a smaller gain than IPO allottees, and those buying at Thursday's highs would need further earnings growth to justify the price.
The company plans to use part of the IPO proceeds to repay debt at its telecom subsidiary, with the remaining funds allocated for general corporate purposes. That deleveraging, if executed, could strengthen the balance sheet and support future investment in network expansion, including 5G and fixed broadband.
The next major trigger for the stock is financial results: the board was scheduled to meet on Friday, October 30, to consider unaudited results for the quarter and half-year ended September 30, 2026, which will give investors their first post-listing look at the company's operating performance.
For the broader market, the Jio listing has been a landmark moment. It is India's largest-ever IPO by size, and its success stands in contrast to the mixed performance of several other large recent listings. It has also demonstrated the depth of domestic investor appetite for large, high-quality digital businesses, with retail participation running into crores of applications.
Whether the stock can sustain its current valuation will depend on delivery: subscriber growth, average revenue per user, enterprise revenues and margins will all be scrutinised in the quarters ahead.
For now, though, the mood among IPO investors is celebratory. Those who received allotments at Rs 1,119 and held through Thursday's session were sitting on paper gains of more than 30 per cent in two days, a return that would normally take years in a conventional investment. The question for the market is whether this is the start of a long re-rating of India's digital champion, or a listing-day euphoria that will fade as the stock settles into a more normal trading pattern.
The answer will emerge gradually, as earnings, competition and market conditions do their work.
(Reporting based on Business Standard and Moneycontrol.)