Top discount brokers’ investors base continues to shrink in Aug

New Delhi: Top discount broking firms continued to lose their active investor base in August. Groww, Zerodha, Angel One and Upstox - India’s four bigshot discount broking firms - lost around 7 lakh clients combined.

Groww had 1.23 crore active investors in July, which has fallen 2.80 per cent to 1.20 crore in August, Zerodha’s investors base decreased by 1.71 per cent to 72.63 lakh from nearly 74.34 lakh in July, Angel One lost 1.51 per cent investors in the month to 70.46 lakh from 71.97 lakh in previous month, and Upstox’s user based decline to 23.78 lakh from 24.74 lakh in July.

Mirae Asset Capital, Indstocks, HDFC Securities, PhonePe Wealth, Sharekhan, Kotak Securities, and Motilal Oswal Financial also saw a drop in active clients in August as a result of the slowdown in investor activity.

The decline coincided with the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) tightening of its rules, which included higher taxes, steeper capital thresholds, fewer weekly expiries, and stricter margin requirements. Futures and options trading volumes saw a discernible decline as a result of these actions.