Indian Stock Market Faces User Decline

The Indian stock market is currently navigating a difficult period, resulting in a reduction in the overall user count of stock broking applications. For the first time in a year, the registration numbers on these platforms have decreased, falling by 1.37% to 48.97 million in February, down from 49.64 million in January.

Top Players in the Stock Broking Space

Groww has maintained its lead in the active user segment with a 26.57% market share, even though it experienced a 1.68% reduction in its user base, which decreased to 13.01 million in February from 13.23 million in January, based on NSE statistics.

Meanwhile, Zerodha, the second-largest brokerage with a 16.25% market share, also faced a 1.55% month-on-month decline, seeing its active client count drop to 7.96 million in February from 8.08 million in January.

Angel One, ranking third among brokers, reported a 1.53% decrease in its user base, closing February with 7.65 million active clients and a market share of 15.62%.

Reasons for the Decline

The decrease in user figures across various platforms is largely attributed to sluggish market conditions that have persisted over recent months.

Performance of Other Major Brokers

Further, significant brokers such as Upstox and ICICIdirect have retained their positions at 4th and 5th among brokers but also experienced a fall in active users. Upstox, supported by Ratan Tata, reported an active user base of 2.79 million with a market share of 5.70%, marking a 2.42% decline month-on-month. Similarly, ICICIdirect’s active user count saw a slight decrease of 0.57% to 1.94 million.

Traditional Brokers Stand Out

Amidst the downward trend, HDFC Securities recorded a growth of 1.97% month-on-month, while Kotak Securities saw a decline of 0.93%, concluding February with 1.49 million users.

Motilal Oswal and SBI Securities kept their positions in 8th and 9th place, respectively, with 1.02 million and 0.98 million active users, holding market shares of 2.08% and 2.01%.

Emerging Brokers Show Promising Growth

On a more positive note, PhonePe’s Share. Market exhibited one of the most significant growth rates among emerging brokers, boosting its user base by 2.58% to reach 0.35 million active clients. Similarly, other up-and-coming platforms, Dhan and INDmoney, increased their user bases by 0.70% and 1.12% month-on-month, respectively.