Jio Platforms makes strong market debut, lists on NSE with a gain of 21.3%

The shares of Jio Platforms were listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday with a gain of 21.3%, resulting in a market capitalisation of Rs 12,50,954 crore (around $131 billion).

The Rs 30,213 crore initial public offering (IPO) of Jio Platforms was priced at Rs 1,119 per share. The IPO received an overwhelming response from investors. It was oversubscribed in less than two hours on opening day, and closed with a 22X oversubscription.

Jio Platforms is betting on digital services, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing to drive growth beyond telecom as it positions itself as a technology company.

"There is no either-or at Jio: the network is our technology," said Akash Ambani, Managing Director of Jio Platforms, highlighting the company's in-house 5G core, cloud-native radio access network, and software platform serving 533.3 million customers.

“Connectivity was the first product we built on that platform. Digital services, AI and cloud are what we are layering on top of it now," he said.

Meanwhile, brokerage houses are bullish on the prospects of Jio Platforms.

Motilal Oswal, in its note, said scaling up digital platforms (cloud, enterprise communications, IoT, and managed services, along with international tie-ups for 5G/UBR technology) will offer Jio Platforms the next leg of growth beyond the connectivity business.

The brokerage house has set a bull-case target price of Rs 1,690 crore and a bear-case target price of Rs 1,035.

The listing of Jio Platforms could bring about a sea of change in the dynamics of market capitalisation on Indian stock exchanges. It could potentially put two Reliance Group companies—Reliance Industries and Jio Platforms—in the top five most valued companies in the country, with the other three contenders being Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank.