The National Stock Exchange (NSE), India's largest bourse, saw its active client base increase by 21% to 49.2 million in FY25, boosted by strong stock market gains in the first half of the year. There were 40.8 million active clients—those who had completed at least one trade in the preceding 12 months—at the end of FY24.
Groww Invest Tech solidified its dominance, with active clients surging 36% to nearly 13 million, increasing its market share by 286 basis points (bps) to 26.3%. IPO-bound Groww outperformed Zerodha, the former market leader and India's most profitable brokerage, whose market share fell by 184 basis points to 16 percent. Angel One closed the gap with Zerodha, growing its active client base by 24 percent year on year to 7.58 million, trailing only Zerodha's 7.9 million.
Upstox reported a modest 9.2 percent increase, reaching 2.75 million customers. The market shares of Groww, Zerodha, Angel One, and Upstox increased to 63.3% from 62.4% the year before.
The next four positions were occupied by traditional brokerages SBICap Securities, Kotak Securities, HDFC Securities, and ICICI Securities. Among the top ten, Moneylicious Securities (Dhan) experienced the fastest growth, with active clients more than doubling to around 1 million.
In FY25, domestic brokerages added a record 41.1 million demat accounts, bringing the total to 192.4 million, the highest annual increase ever. Individuals can hold multiple accounts, so this figure overstates the number of unique investors. According to estimates, India's distinct investor base totals around 120 million.
Since the pandemic, the capital market has grown, thanks to streamlined account-opening procedures, generally bullish trends, and lower trading costs.
The fiscal year 25 was a rollercoaster for equity investors. A strong first half was followed by volatility in the second, which erased much of the early gains. While the Nifty increased 5.3%, the Sensex saw its worst annual performance since FY23, rising 7.5%. The Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices performed slightly better, rising 7.5% and 5.4%, respectively. A market revision was brought on by high valuations, persistent selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), and subpar corporate earnings during the July–September and October–December quarters, despite the Sensex's nearly 15% gain during the first half of the year.
