- Allotment
- The process of deciding who receives shares when an IPO is oversubscribed, and how many.
- Anchor investor
- A large institutional investor allotted shares one day before the IPO opens, at the issue price, with a lock-in.
- ASBA
- Application Supported by Blocked Amount — your bank blocks the application money in your account instead of debiting it; it's released or debited after allotment.
- Cut-off price
- The final issue price set by the company and merchant bankers, usually the upper end of the price band. Retail applicants normally bid 'at cut-off'.
- DRHP / RHP
- Draft Red Herring Prospectus / Red Herring Prospectus — the offer documents filed with SEBI describing the company, risks and issue terms.
- Face value
- The nominal accounting value of a share (often ₹1, ₹2, ₹5 or ₹10), unrelated to the issue price.
- Flipping
- Selling allotted IPO shares on the listing day to capture the listing gain.
- GMP
- Grey Market Premium — the unofficial premium over the issue price at which IPO shares trade in the informal market before listing.
- IPO
- Initial Public Offering — the first sale of a company's shares to the public, after which the stock lists and trades on an exchange.
- Issue size
- The total amount a company aims to raise, made up of a fresh issue and/or an offer for sale (OFS).
- Kostak
- A fixed price paid in the grey market for a whole IPO application, whether or not it gets an allotment.
- Listing gain
- The percentage difference between the listing-day open price and the issue price.
- Lot size
- The fixed number of shares in one application unit. You bid in whole lots.
- Mainboard IPO
- An IPO on the primary NSE/BSE platform, generally larger with stricter norms.
- NII / HNI
- Non-Institutional Investor (High-Net-worth Individual) — anyone applying for more than ₹2 lakh. Split into sNII (₹2–10 lakh) and bNII (above ₹10 lakh).
- Price band
- The range (e.g. ₹90–₹100) within which investors bid. The final 'cut-off' price is usually the top of the band.
- QIB
- Qualified Institutional Buyer — mutual funds, insurers, banks and FIIs. Their portion of an IPO is typically up to 50%.
- Registrar (RTA)
- The Registrar and Transfer Agent that processes applications, runs the allotment and handles refunds — e.g. KFin Technologies, MUFG Intime, Bigshare.
- Retail (RII)
- Retail Individual Investor — applications up to ₹2 lakh. Allotment here is by lottery when oversubscribed.
- SME IPO
- An IPO on the NSE Emerge or BSE SME platform — smaller companies, higher minimum application (2 lots / ₹2 lakh+ for retail since 1 Jul 2025), lower liquidity, higher risk.
- Subject to Sauda
- A grey-market deal on an IPO application that only settles if the application receives an allotment.
- Subscription
- How many times the shares on offer were bid for. '10x' means demand was ten times supply.
