Large initial public offerings have outperformed the wider stock market over the past year, fuelling hopes that volumes of new listings will finally pick up pace again after a prolonged downturn.
Shares in companies that raised at least $100mn at flotation since the start of 2023 have outperformed the S&P 500 equity index by an average of 18 percentage points, according to a Financial Times analysis of Dealogic data.
Their performance was helped by a few big successes such as insurance group Skyward Specialty, which has risen 125 per cent since listing a year ago, and Rayzebio, which is up 244 per cent, driven by news last month that Bristol Myers Squibb would buy the biotech company. They helped more than offset the weak market reception to groups such as grocery delivery company Instacart, which is still well underwater. On average, newly listed stocks have risen by nearly 30 per cent from their offer price.