The mandatory lock-in period of stocks worth ₹1.29 lakh crore in 57 companies that went to IPO recently will be lifted over the next four months, leading to the possibility of partial sell-off in these counters, though it will also depend on the market conditions at the time of expiry of the lock-ins.

Market regulator SEBI mandates separate lock-in periods ranging from one to six months for promoters and non-promoters . For anchor investors, 50 per cent of the allotted shares are locked in for 90 days, while the remaining 50 per cent are locked in for 30 days from the date of allotment.

Promoters’ shares up to 20 per cent are locked in for 18 months, while for the remaining, the lock-in period is six months. Similarly, for non-promoter pre-IPO shareholders such as venture capital or private equity investors, the lock-in period is for six months.

Shares unlocked

Some of the companies, shares on which lock-in will be lifted over the next four months, include Schloss Bangalore, Hexaware Technologies, Arisinfra Solutions, Ather Energy, Borana Weaves, Senores Pharmaceuticals, Unimech Aerospace & Mfg, Dr Agarwal’s Health Care and Indo Farm Equipment, according to the Nuvama Institutional Equities report.

Lock-in on shares worth ₹3,623 crore of seven companies were released on Monday and nearly 112 million shares of these companies were available for trading.

Sunil Subramaniam, founder and CEO of independent think-tank Sense and Simplicity, said the expiry of lock-in in companies may not lead to huge selling as most of these companies are in the small-cap space, which has not performed well of late. The Nifty Smallcap 250 has been flat year-to-date basis while the Nifty50 is up almost 8 per cent.

A significant number of shares under lock-in are held by promoters and selling even a small quantity will lead to pricing pressure as most of them have a very low free float, he said.

“Institutions such as MFs, PMS, AIFs, which are holding these stocks, are not facing any liquidity crunch. Even if they wish to offload their investment, they will have to find a suitable alternative investment opportunity to deploy the funds,” he said.

Interestingly, the outlook for the infrastructure companies, which are dominant in the lock-in release list, appears bright in the next 3-4 years, with private capex expected to pick up, and this can lead to a rally in these stock prices, he added.

Published on June 30, 2025