PhysicsWallah shares are set to face sharp selling pressure on Monday, May 18, as approximately 26 crore shares worth ₹2,949 crore, representing 9% of the company’s total outstanding equity, become eligible for trading today following the expiry of the six-month lock-in period, per Nuvama Institutional Equities. The lock-in expiry falls exactly six months from the stock’s listing date of November 18, 2025, when PhysicsWallah debuted on the NSE at ₹145, a 33% premium over its ₹109 issue price. The stock last closed at ₹112.60 on May 17, roughly 30% below that listing day high of ₹161.99.
PhysicsWallah IPO & Lock-In Snapshot
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| IPO Open / Close Date | November 11–13, 2025 |
| Total IPO Size | ₹3,480 crore |
| Fresh Issue | ₹3,100 crore (28.45 crore shares) |
| Offer for Sale (OFS) | ₹380 crore (3.49 crore shares) |
| Issue Price | ₹109 per share |
| Price Band | ₹103–₹109 |
| Lot Size | 137 shares |
| Listing Date | November 18, 2025 |
| Listing Price (NSE) | ₹145 (+33% premium) |
| All-Time High | ₹161.99 (listing day, November 18, 2025) |
| All-Time Low | ₹77.72 (March 4, 2026) |
| Last Close (May 17, 2026) | ₹112.60 |
| Six-Month Lock-In Expiry | May 18, 2026 |
| Shares Freed Today | ~26 crore (₹2,949 crore / 9% equity) |
| Next Earnings Date | June 3, 2026 (Q4 FY26) |
Also Read: PhysicsWallah IPO
What Is Being Unlocked — And by Whom
Under SEBI’s August 2021 rule, Venture Capital Funds, Alternate Investment Funds of Category I or II, and Foreign Venture Capital Investors who acquired pre-IPO shares are subject to a six-month lock-in from the date of listing. Six months from November 18, 2025, is today — May 18, 2026. These are institutional pre-IPO backers, not retail allottees. The restriction expires today. That does not force anyone to sell, but the market is pricing in the possibility from the open.
The scale is what matters here. The three-month lock-in in February 2026 freed roughly 7.17 crore shares worth ₹766 crore, and the stock fell 4–6% on that single day. Today’s unlock is 3.5 times larger in share count and nearly four times larger in rupee value.
The Stock’s Rocky Six Months Since Listing
PhysicsWallah’s post-listing journey has been one of India’s sharper IPO corrections in recent memory. The stock touched ₹161.99 on its very first day of trade, its all-time high, and has not come close since. It broke below its ₹109 IPO price in late February 2026, touching its all-time low of ₹77.72 on March 4, 2026, a 52% peak-to-trough crash in less than four months from its listing. It has since recovered partially to the ₹111–₹114 range.
Oddly, two consecutive sessions of FII net buying on May 14 (+₹187.46 crore) and May 15 (+₹1,329.17 crore), per NiftyTrader NSE data, had provided some broader market stabilisation just before today’s event risk arrived.
The Business Is Growing — Which Makes the Discount Interesting
That’s not the whole story, though. Strip away the stock chart, and PhysicsWallah’s operational numbers are genuinely strong. In Q3FY26 (October–December 2025), the company reported revenue of ₹1,082 crore, up 34% year-on-year from ₹810 crore, and a net profit of ₹102.3 crore, a 33% jump from ₹76.7 crore in the same quarter last year, per Business Standard. Nine-month FY26 revenue reached ₹2,980 crore, already exceeding the full-year FY25 total before Q4 was counted.
Online paid users grew from 3.30 million to 3.96 million year-on-year. Offline enrollments hit 0.41 million across 318 centres. Treasury stood at ₹5,054 crore as of December 31, 2025, per AlphaStreet/company filing, a substantial liquidity buffer.
The complication: full-year FY26 consolidated data shows a net loss of ₹243 crore, according to Screener and Kotak Securities. The Q3 quarterly profit was real; Q4 costs apparently erased it on an annual basis. Until Q4 FY26 results are published on June 3, 2026, the full-year picture remains incomplete.
The Non-Obvious Angle: Management Is Road-Showing Today
What stood out is PhysicsWallah management attending investor conferences at Goldman Sachs and Macquarie in Hong Kong on May 19–20, 2026, per a BSE regulatory filing on May 14, per Screener. The timing is deliberate. Management is road-showing to institutional investors internationally on precisely the day the largest share unlock in the company’s listed history hits the market. The strategy is transparent: build institutional demand offshore to absorb or offset potential domestic selling pressure from newly freed pre-IPO holders.
CARE’s Q4 FY26 monitoring report, filed two days ago, confirmed no deviation in IPO proceeds deployment. PhysicsWallah has utilised ₹481.91 crore of its IPO proceeds through March 2026, per the CARE filing, on schedule.
Coverage and Analyst Divide
Only two analysts formally track PhysicsWallah, per Free Press Journal data: one Buy, one Sell. For a company with a market cap of ₹32,558 crore, that is razor-thin institutional coverage. It contributes directly to the volatility: with no sell-side consensus, price swings on event-driven news like today’s lock-in are amplified. The P/E ratio stands at -150.81 on a trailing basis given the annual loss position, per Tickertape.
What Retail IPO Investors Should Know Right Now
If you subscribed at the IPO price of ₹109 and held through listing, you are sitting on a marginal gain of roughly 3% at current levels around ₹112.60. If you bought on listing day near ₹145, you are down approximately 22%. If you caught the March 4 low near ₹77.72 and held, you are up roughly 45%.
The critical question is not what happens in the first hour today, it is what happens over the next 10–15 sessions as institutional holders who are now free to exit decide whether to sell, hold, or add. If selling materialises in volume, the ₹95–₹100 zone is plausible again. If today’s event risk turns out to be the selling peak rather than the start of a new down leg, the path to ₹120–₹130 opens, consistent with Q3’s earnings trajectory.
Read Next: How to Read Open Interest Changes During a Market Correction
FAQ
Q: Why are PhysicsWallah shares falling today, on May 18, 2026?
Approximately 26 crore shares worth ₹2,949 crore, 9% of total equity, become eligible for trading today as the six-month lock-in period for pre-IPO institutional investors (VC funds, AIFs, and FVCIs) expires, exactly six months from the November 18, 2025, listing date, per Nuvama Institutional Equities and SEBI lock-in rules.
Q: Is PhysicsWallah profitable?
On a quarterly basis, yes, Q3FY26 net profit was ₹102.3 crore on revenue of ₹1,082 crore, per Business Standard. On a full-year FY26 consolidated basis, the company reported a net loss of ₹243 crore, per Screener/Kotak Securities. Q4FY26 results are due June 3, 2026, and will determine the annual profitability picture.
Q: What is PhysicsWallah’s share price vs. IPO price?
PhysicsWallah’s IPO price was ₹109. The stock last closed at ₹112.60 on May 17, 2026, marginally above the issue price but 30% below the listing day high of ₹161.99 and 45% below the all-time high of ₹161.99 touched on November 18, 2025, per NSE data.
The next hard data trigger after today’s trading session: Q4FY26 earnings on June 3, 2026. Until then, the stock trades on lock-in event flow, institutional sentiment from the Hong Kong road-show, and whatever May 18’s actual volume data reveals about how many pre-IPO holders chose to exit when the restriction lifted.
