Jio Platforms jumps 27 percent on debut, becomes India's second-most valuable company

A debut that reshaped the market rankings

Jio Platforms began trading on Wednesday at Rs 1,358 on both exchanges, a premium of about 21.4 percent over its issue price, and climbed further during the session to close at Rs 1,419. At the closing price, its market value stood at about Rs 13.1 lakh crore, compared with an implied valuation of about Rs 10.3 lakh crore at the issue price. That put it ahead of Bharti Airtel, whose market capitalisation was about Rs 11.9 lakh crore, and made Jio the country's most valuable telecom company by market value.

Reliance Industries retained the top spot with a market capitalisation of about Rs 15.7 lakh crore, so the parent and its newly listed arm now occupy the first two positions in India's market value rankings. The combined market value of the two companies crossed Rs 28 lakh crore, and according to data compiled by Bloomberg, the Reliance Group's aggregate listed value moved past Rs 30 lakh crore, overtaking the Tata Group's roughly Rs 25 lakh crore as India's most valuable conglomerate. One caution applies to adding the two values together: Reliance Industries continues to hold a majority stake in Jio Platforms, so their market capitalisations cannot simply be added to arrive at the group's underlying economic value.

The listing also carried a wider market signal. Jio's debut came against a weak backdrop for Indian equities, with the benchmark Nifty 50 down about 13 percent so far in 2026, and the strong first-day performance was seen as a rare bright spot for large share sales, which have often disappointed after listing in the past.

The record IPO behind the debut

The debut followed India's largest public issue, with Jio Platforms raising Rs 30,213 crore. Investor demand was exceptionally strong: the offering was subscribed more than 22 times, combined demand across the public issue and the anchor placement exceeded Rs 7.4 lakh crore, the issue was fully subscribed within 95 minutes of opening, and the number of applications crossed 1.3 crore.

The listing gives Jio Platforms an independently traded valuation for the first time, after years of sitting inside Reliance Industries' broader portfolio. Investors can now take separate exposure to the telecom and digital services business on the one hand and Reliance's diversified operations on the other, rather than holding both through a single stock. Public shareholding in Jio Platforms stood at 35.52 percent after the IPO, while public shareholders held 49.56 percent of Reliance Industries as of September 2026.

Jio's first-day rise also made it one of the few large Indian listings to gain strongly on debut, and it joined a small group of businesses, including Meta, Alibaba and SpaceX, that achieved equity valuations above 100 billion dollars at the time of their IPOs.

What comes next for the stock

Despite the size of its market value, Jio Platforms will not enter India's benchmark indices immediately. It will have to wait several months before it can be included in indices such as the Nifty 50, because stock exchanges must first introduce derivatives products on the stock before it becomes eligible for index inclusion.

For Reliance Industries, the listing marks a shift in how the group is valued by the market, with its telecom and digital arm now carrying a visible standalone price. For the broader market, the debut is being watched as a test of whether large, well-subscribed offerings can hold their listing gains in a falling market, after Reliance Industries' own shares declined about 25 percent so far this year.

The next milestones to watch are whether Jio sustains its debut valuation in the coming sessions, when derivatives trading begins, and when index providers take up the stock, each of which could bring a fresh wave of institutional buying.

Editorial disclosure

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