Retail Comeback Signs? Active Client Base Decline Slows Across Major Brokerages In October As Markets Recover
Freshly-listed Groww added around 1.4 lakh active clients to reach a total base of 1.20 crore, representing a 1.2% increase from September's total of 1.19 crore.
The competitive landscape among India's leading stockbrokers saw subtle shifts in October, after months of a continuous downward trend, data from the National Stock Exchange showed.
While stock brokers collectively recorded a marginal dip in active clients, falling 0.14% month-on-month to a total of 4.43 crore users, market leader Groww registered a slight uptick in its numbers.
The freshly-listed firm added around 1.4 lakh active clients to reach a total base of 1.20 crore, representing a 1.2% increase from September's total of 1.19 crore. To add some perspective, the Lalit Keshre-led broker has cumulatively lost over 12 lakh clients since the beginning of the calendar year.
In contrast to Groww, but in line with the broader trend, several established brokers registered contractions in their active client base. Zerodha reported 70.2 lakh active clients, a decrease of almost 1% from 70.9 lakh in September. Angel One and Upstox also experienced declines of 0.6% and 2.6%, respectively, settling at 68.5 lakh and 22.2 lakh active clients respectively. The 2.6% decrease made Upstox the largest percentage loser among the top 10 brokers this month.
Traditional financial institutions presented a mixed picture. ICICI Securities and SBICap Securities recorded client growth of 1% and 1.9% respectively. Conversely, HDFC Securities and Kotak Securities saw their client numbers contract by 1.3% and 1.4% respectively.
Broker Dhan continued its client accrual, growing by 1.03% to 9.8 lakhs. Motilal Oswal posted a fractional decline of 1.1%, ending the month with 9.3 lakhs active clients.
The moderation in client erosion coincided with an improvement in Indian markets. The Sensex and Nifty advanced 3 percent each, while the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices rose 4 percent and 3 percent respectively. Foreign institutional investors, who had been net sellers for several months, turned buyers and invested around $1.6 billion in domestic equities.
October's figures come at a time when India's capital markets are in an upwards trend. The benchmark Nifty and Sensex indices saw late-session comebacks on Friday, jumping from their day’s lows to register their fifth straight day of closing in green. At closing, the Sensex gained 0.1% to 84,562, up 84 points. NSE's Nifty 50 closed 0.14% or 36 points higher at to 25,916.
As of March, 2025, India’s investment and wealth management industry was valued at approximately Rs 1.1 lakh crore and is projected to grow up to Rs 2.6 lakh crore by March 2030 at a compounded annual growth rate of around 17%, according to analysts at Angel One. Despite this progress, the analysts add, the market remains underpenetrated, with active demat accounts at around 5% of the population, providing significant scope for long-term expansion.
