Initial public offerings, which had been the stars in the bull market last year, have lost their charm this year and are likely to face bleak days ahead in 2009.

Dalal Street, which saw a mega offering by Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Power hitting the capital markets this year, fell prey to the bears with the benchmark index Sensex plunging by over 10,000 points from its peak in January.

IPO activity in 2008 witnessed a dramatic fall in volume, which declined nearly 51 per cent to around Rs 19,360 crore this year as against nearly Rs 40,000 crore at the end of 2007, as per data compiled by NexGen Capitals, the merchant-banking arm of brokerage firm SMC Global Securities.

However, the decline in volume would have been sharper if Reliance Power's mega offering of close to Rs 12,000 crore is excluded from the IPOs in 2008 (till December 10).

Analysing the sharp downturn in the primary markets due to the bearish trends in the secondary market, most experts believe 2009 would be a difficult year and prospects for new issues remain dim.

"The IPO scenario in 2009 is expected to be bleak and would be much tougher. The IPOs in 2008 were the leftovers from 2007, when there had been a rush of offers but the pipeline for 2009 has almost dried up, so we may not see any significant offer in the coming year," NexGen Capital equity head Jagannadham Thunuguntla said.

Echoing the sentiment, global consultancy KPMG's head of the private equity department, Vikram Uttamsingh, said the meltdown in the stock markets has led to dwindling offers in the primary market, which would be more pronounced in the coming year.