IPO Subscription Categories (QIB, NII, Retail)
IPO subscription categories are the investor buckets an Indian IPO's shares are divided into — Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB), Non-Institutional Investors (NII, often called HNIs) and Retail Individual Investors — each with its own reserved share of the issue and its own subscription figure.
For a mainboard book-built IPO by a company that meets SEBI's profitability track record, the ICDR rules allocate not more than 50% to QIBs, not less than 15% to NIIs and not less than 35% to retail investors. Companies that do not meet the track record must give at least 75% to QIBs, with smaller NII and retail portions. Some issues also reserve shares for employees or shareholders of a parent.
Retail investors apply for up to ₹2 lakh. NII applications are above ₹2 lakh, and the NII portion is split: one-third for applications up to ₹10 lakh and two-thirds for larger ones. QIBs are institutions such as mutual funds, insurers, banks and registered foreign investors; part of the QIB portion can go to anchor investors before the issue opens.
Exchanges publish category-wise subscription through the bidding days. A figure of "50x" for a category means bids for fifty times the shares reserved for it. MarketPing's IPO tracker shows these live, straight from exchange data.
In practice
Kanohar Electricals' ₹1,056 crore IPO was subscribed 91 times across NSE and BSE. QIBs bid for 215 times their portion, non-institutional investors 88 times (94 times in the larger-ticket part, 75 times in the smaller) and retail investors 21 times. Read the filing (10 Sep 2026) →
Common questions
How is IPO allotment done when the retail category is oversubscribed?
By lottery. When retail applications outnumber the minimum lots available, the registrar draws lots so that as many applicants as possible receive one minimum lot each. Applying for more lots does not improve the chance of being picked, so many retail applicants bid for a single lot at the cut-off price.
How are shares allotted to non-institutional investors (NIIs)?
Since April 2022, the NII category works like the retail one: each successful applicant receives the minimum NII application size, the smallest lot multiple above ₹2 lakh, and applicants are picked by lottery when the category is oversubscribed. Any shares left after every picked applicant has that minimum are allotted proportionately.
Can a retail investor apply in the NII category?
Yes. An individual who bids for more than ₹2 lakh is automatically treated as a non-institutional investor; there is no separate eligibility test. Bids up to ₹5 lakh can be paid through UPI, while larger ones need an ASBA application through a bank. NII bids cannot be withdrawn or lowered once placed, unlike retail bids, which can be cancelled until the issue closes.
Why does QIB subscription often jump on the last day?
Institutions usually place their bids on the final day of the issue, once they have seen demand in the other categories and finished their own work on the prospectus. The anchor portion, allotted a day before the issue opens, is not included in the QIB subscription figure published during the bidding days.
How stocks tend to react
Heavy institutional subscription is widely watched because institutions are assumed to have studied the prospectus. Subscription describes demand during the issue only; listing and later performance have varied widely even among heavily subscribed issues.
MarketPing measures this instead of guessing: every analysed announcement carries the stock's actual price reaction across 14 horizons, and the Reaction Lab aggregates how each category of announcement has historically moved stocks.
Related terms
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Educational content, not investment advice. Regulations and tax rules change — verify current rules before acting.