Open market trades top ₹1 trillion in 2026 as M&A engine slows
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.With high interest rates, valuation gaps, and global upheavals weighing on traditional mergers and acquisitions (M&A), promoters and institutional investors are turning to the secondary market, driving block and bulk deals to a multi-year high in the January-April period despite bearish sentiment.This year, until 15 April, a total of ₹1.1 trillion changed hands in open-market trades, up 25% from ₹86,810 crore a year ago, according to data from capital markets platform Prime Database.Deven R. Choksey, founder and managing director of boutique fund DRChoksey FinServ, said that investors are using block and bulk deals to realign portfolio weights or pare long‑held positions quickly in a volatile market."What we are seeing is a clear rotation of capital.
Despite pressure on benchmark indices, these trades are largely happening in fundamentally strong companies. The market has successfully absorbed over ₹1 trillion of supply while continuing to hold key technical support level," he said.The 2026 value of bulk and block deals is the second-highest for the first four months since at least 2021, although 2024 remains an outlier at ₹2.15 trillion—primarily driven by several multi-billion-dollar deals, including British American Tobacco’s ₹17,500 crore divestment in ITC Ltd, Rakesh Gangwal’s ₹6,800 crore stake sale in InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, and Singtel’s ₹5,800 crore divestment in Bharti Airtel Ltd.So far in 2026, the largest bulk and block deals have involved promoters or foreign portfolio investors.
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