NSE aims for listing in second half of 2018

NSE chief Vikram Limaye said a listing by March would be 'very difficult', and a more realistic time frame would be the second half of next year

The new chief executive of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) told Reuters he does not expect the bourse's eagerly awaited listing to take place until the second half of 2018.

The exchange had originally planned to go public this year, in what could be one of the country's biggest ever initial public offerings (IPOs).

Vikram Limaye, who took the helm in July after heading infrastructure lender IDFC, said the delayed time frame was dictated by the need to address a regulatory probe into whether NSE employees had provided unfair trading access to select brokers.

NSE has applied to the Securities