New Delhi: In what could be viewed as a sign of revival of retail interest in the country’s primary market, the initial public offering of Indiabulls Power has received over 31,000 applications from retail investors on the first day of its issue.

Although the retail portion of the offering remained undersubscribed, the interest was more than what was seen in three major IPOs of the fiscal -- NHPC, Oil India and Adani Power.

According to an analysis, NHPC’s over Rs6,000 crore issue received 30,474 retail applications on the first day while Adani Power’s Rs3,610 crore issue got only 15,000 such applications. The Rs4,982-crore issue of Oil received 7,700 applications.

“Retail investors are gradually staging a comeback and it is a pleasant surprise for the primary market,” SMC Capital equity head Jagannadham Thunuguntla said.

The Rs1,700-crore initial public offer of Indiabulls Power, which hit the market yesterday, got subscribed nearly six times, as institutional investors flooded the counter with maximum number of bids.

However, bids from retail investors on the first day of subscription accounted for only 37% of the shares reserved for them.