new delhi india witnessed 22 initial public offers worth over 25 billion in the first three months of 2021 amid high momentum in the countrys capital markets and the trend is likely to stay bullish in the current quarter also according to a reportleading consultancy ey indias ipo initial public offer report released on wednesday showed that consumer products and retail diversified industrial products automotive and transportation were the most active sectors in terms of the number of ipos in the 2021 first quarterthe ipos include both in the main as well as sme small and medium enterprise marketswith a robust q1 ipo market likely to stay bullish in q2 2021 it said adding that india ranks ninth globally in terms of the number of ipos yeartodate ytd 2021there were 22 ipos that mopped up 257044 million in the first quarter of this year including five in the sme spaceduring the first quarter indian railway finance corps ipo with an issue size of 634 million was the largestin the main markets bse and nse there were 17 ipos in q1 2021 versus 1 ipo in q1 2020 and 10 ipos in q4 2020 representing an increase of 1600 per cent compared to q1 2020 and an increase of 70 per cent compared to q4 2020 the report saidin the sme segment there were 5 ipos in the first quarter of this year versus 11 and 9 ipos in the first quarter of 2020 and fourth quarter of last year respectively this represents a decrease of 55 per cent compared to q1 2020 and a decline of 44 per cent compared to q4 2020we are witnessing high momentum in the indian capital markets significant amount of activity is driven by huge dry powder awaiting investment and companies exploring a listing in india or overseasthe markets continue to reward companies with robust scalable and technologyled business models sandip khetan partner and national leader of financial accounting advisory services faas at ey india saidas per the report the ipo pipeline has over 20 companies that have filed their draft red herring prospectus drhps and more than 30 pebacked companies are planning exits invits worth almost 5 billion are in the pipelinehowever the report also noted that there are reasons for caution in the nearterm given the slow start to vaccinations in india relative to the size of the population renewed spike in covid infections with the second wave and threats from new variants of the virusglobally the report said that attractive market conditions in 2021 so far have resulted in the bestperforming first quarter by deal numbers and proceeds in the last 20 yearsjust as traditional ipo markets have been highly active the special purpose acquisition company spac ipos in q1 have also been breaking records completing more deals and raising more in proceeds than in the whole of 2020through q1 2021 the global ipo market saw 430 deals raising 1056 billion in proceeds increasing by 85 per cent and 271