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. Among the biggest transactions are Kedaara-backed Samayat Services' offloading of ₹7,636 crore worth of equity in Vishal Mega Mart Ltd in late February and True North-backed Viridity Tone’s sale of a 3.6% stake in Anthem Biosciences Ltd for ₹1,262 crore in March.
An easy way out
The trend, according to market participants, could be attributed to a lack of alternative exit routes for private equity firms and to the need for sovereign wealth funds to rebalance their portfolios.
India's M&A activity during the period has declined 56% to $7 billion (about ₹66,000 crore) from $15.9 billion (about ₹1.5 trillion) a year ago, according to professional services firm Grant Thornton Bharat. The number of initial public offerings (IPOs) also fell during the period. Mint reported on 12 March that India's multi-year IPO boom was slowing as the US-Iran war soured market sentiment and depleted liquidity.
Secondary blocks and qualified institutional placements (QIPs) take less time to execute than IPOs and strategic sales, Arbind Maheswari, head of India equities, BofA Securities, told Mint in an interview on 16 April. "QIPs and block deals are then an easy sell for capital that is looking to get deployed at reasonable valuations," he said.
Nipun Goel, head of investment banking at IIFL Capital, told Mint on 10 April that India's secondary market typically follows a specific sequence: After a period of volatility, activity in block and bulk deals or QIPs usually picks up before the primary market windows finally reopen.
An easy way in
The volatility that characterized the first four months of 2026 has not deterred these transactions. Instead, it has created entry points for domestic mutual funds, which have been the primary buyers on the other side of these institutional exits.
For instance, HDFC Mutual Fund bought Vishal Mega Mart shares worth ₹1,100 crore when the company's promoter offloaded equity through a secondary transaction in February. In the same month, Parag Parikh's PPFAS Mutual Fund bought 56 million units of Embassy Office Parks REIT worth ₹2,364 crore, after Capital Income Builder, American Funds, and Small Cap World Fund sold nearly 5.5% of their units in the real estate investment trust for ₹2,200 crore through open-market deals.
“The trend is expected to continue through the second quarter as several PE mandates approach their expiration dates and IPO anchor lock-ins near their end,” a merchant banker at a domestic firm told Mint, on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak with the media.
With the total already exceeding ₹1 trillion, full-year open-market activity may surpass the ₹5.84 trillion recorded in 2025.