Simple, practical explainers on the stock market, IPOs and investing.
Looking for one term? The A–Z glossary lists every explainer on one page.
61 articles
You tap apply, the broker says the bid was submitted, and the approval request never reaches your payments app. This guide walks a beginner through the five places a UPI mandate breaks, how to tell which one you hit from the screens you already have, and the habits that stop it happening again.
Applying for an IPO takes a few minutes, but the sequence matters: a demat account linked to your PAN, a bid placed through a broker or a bank, and a payment mandate approved before the deadline. This guide walks through each step, the choices on the form, and the mistakes that get applications rejected.
An Indian IPO is usually described in two parts: a fresh issue and an offer for sale. The two lines sit next to each other on the cover page but describe different transactions, with money flowing to different places. This article explains where the cash goes, what dilution means, and how to read a mixed issue.
The listing date is the first day a newly issued share can be bought or sold on the exchange. This guide follows the sequence from issue close to the opening bell, explains why the exchange uses a special pre-open call auction instead of ordinary trading, and shows how the clearing price that becomes the opening price is actually calculated.
Listing gain is a single subtraction: the first traded price minus the issue price, read as a percentage. This article works through the arithmetic in both directions, separates the paper number from the money an investor actually receives, and explains why a first-day move says almost nothing about the quality of the business behind it.
When you apply for an Indian IPO, the application money does not leave your bank account. It is marked and held there until the allotment is known. This article explains what blocking means at the bank, why the system was designed this way, and what an applicant should watch for.
Two companies can run a public issue in the same week and end up on completely different platforms with different rulebooks. This article compares the mainboard with the SME platforms on who vets the offer, who qualifies to list, what a single lot costs, how liquid the share is afterwards, and what the retail reader is really taking on.
A Draft Red Herring Prospectus is the detailed offer document a company files with SEBI before an IPO, containing restated financials, risk factors, litigation history and the intended use of funds. This article explains why it is called a draft, what SEBI does with it, and a practical order in which to read it.
Applying for an IPO through a broker means typing a UPI ID into a bid form and then approving a request on your phone. Between those two actions sits a chain of intermediaries. This article follows the instruction from the bid screen to your bank and back, and shows where it breaks.
IPO updates, market explainers and new articles from CAPITA1, where you already are.