Jio Platforms’ ongoing INR 302bn (USD 3.2bn) initial public offering (IPO), India’s largest to date, has generated extraordinary investor enthusiasm, with strong institutional demand and expectations of substantial listing-day gains.

On the first day of its three-day IPO bookbuild, the overall subscription had already reached 3X the total book within a “hundred minutes” of the issue opening, as reported by several local media.

While different categories had different levels of subscription, there seems no doubt that not only will India’s largest issue be covered 100%, but that demand will far exceed supply.

“I expect,” said one source, “by the end of tomorrow, that the qualified institutional buyers’ QIB category will be 50X subscribed and the high net-work individual (HNI) portion about 20X.”

Meanwhile, as at 2:30pm India time on 22 October, the categories were subscribed as follows: retail portion – 1.3X; HNI – 4.1X; QIB – 9.8X; employees – 1.7X; shareholders – 3.1x, according to an online platform, which tracks and updates bookbuild subscriptions every two minutes.

“It’s all just superlative,” said a second source, pointing to several notable personnel in the Indian professionals including Vallabh Bhanshali of Enam Group, Prashant Jain of 3P Investment Managers and Samir Arora of Helios Capital, all of whom have publicly expressed optimism about Jio’s investment prospects.

Several Indian brokerages have recommended “buys” on Jio, including Motilal Oswal, Swastika Investments, Canara Bank Securities, Geojit Investments, and Choice Capital.

Currently, the company’s grey market premium (GMP) is indicating an about 22% premium over the upper end of Jio’s price band. This is broadly in line with expectations, sources confirmed, with a listing day pop widely accepted at between 15%-25%.

As not only India’s largest IPO to date, it is also the loudest, with market chatter spilling far beyond the professional realm and extending into everyday life.

Previous reports by Mergermarket have also extensively reported on how the bookrunner beauty pageant, the allocation of duties, and the roadshows were conducted in a uniquely “Reliance” way.“

In terms of size, scale and reach, it’s “the SpaceX of Indian IPOs,” the second source said.

Jio’s bookbuild closes tomorrow (23 October) and shares are expected to begin trading on Indian indexes on 28 October.