India’s demat tally hits new high, surges to 16.2 cr in June

Over the year, there has been a remarkable growth in the number of dematerialised (demat) accounts in India, underlining investors' increasing appetite for stock market investments. Data shows that the total number of demat accounts surged to a new record high of 16.2 crore in June, with a net addition of 42 lakh during the month, according to Motilal Oswal Financial Services. In the last one month, the equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty has risen over 4% as political stability at the centre post Lok Sabha election results along with strong portfolio inflows and robust economic outlook lifted investor’s sentiments.

The addition of new accounts in June jumped by 23.5% as compared to average monthly additions of 34 lakh so far in the current financial year 2024-25. In April, 31 lakh new demat accounts were opened, followed by 36 lakh in May.

The data shows an uptick in demat accounts registered with Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL), while the National Securities Depository (NSDL) lost some market share. CDSL and NSDL are two major depositories in terms of the number of demat accounts in India.

Motilal Oswal in its note says that CDSL, the country’s largest depository, continued to gain market share in terms of the total number of demat accounts, raising its overall market share month-on-month (MoM). On a YoY basis, NSDL lost 420 basis points (bps) and 620 bps market share in total and incremental demat accounts, respectively.

Meanwhile, the overall average daily turnover (ADTO) in the stock market increased by around 15% MoM to ₹499 lakh crore, with Futures and options (F&O) derivative ADTO and Cash ADTO rising by 15% and 37.5%, respectively, on a monthly basis. Retail cash ADTO also jumped by 33% MoM to ₹64,600 crore. The total ADTO for two major stock exchanges – BSE and NSE – increased by 9% and 17.1% MoM, respectively.  

On BSE, the total ADTO increased 92% YoY to ₹499 lakh crore, with F&O ADTO rising 15% and cash ADTO increasing 37.5% on monthly basis.

On a MoM basis, the market share of BSE in the total cash T/O segment rose to 7.2% in Jun’24 (vs. 6.4% in May’24). The BSE’s market share in the options notional T/O segment declined to 22% from 23.2% in May’24 and for options premium T/O declined to 8.7% from 9.7% in May’24. 

In terms of brokerage activities, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw sequential increase in its active clients. The number of active clients on NSE rose by 3.1% MoM to 4.42 crore in Jun’24. Currently, the top five discount brokers account for 64.4% of total NSE active clients versus 58.2% in Jun’22. 

In terms of the performance of key discount brokers, Groww continues to lead with a market share of 24.7%. It posted a 5.4% MoM increase in its client count to 1.09 crore and a 55 bp rise in market share.

Zerodha was second on the list with market shares of 17.3%, reporting a 2.1% MoM increase in its client count to 0.77 crore. It saw a 20 bps decline in its market share last month.

On the other hand, Angel One reported a 3.4% MoM increase in its client count to 0.67 crore, with a 5 bps rise in market share to 15.2%. Upstox clocked a 2.7% MoM increase in its client count to 0.27 crore, with a market share of 6%.

In the list of key traditional brokers, ICICI Securities reported a 0.8% MoM increase in its client count to 0.19 crore, with a 10 bps drop in market share to 4.3%. IIFL Securities posted a 0.6% MoM increase in its client count to 40 lakh, with a 5 bps fall in market share to 1%.