Brokers In October: Angel One Climbs To The Second Spot With 2.4 Lakh New User Additions

Indian stockbrokers’ combined total active user base shrunk by 0.5% to 4.59 Cr in October, dropping from 4.61 Cr users in September. Despite the broader market plateau, user consolidation accelerated in favour of newer players. 

Groww continued to cement its market-leading position with 1.38 Cr active users in October, commanding a 30% market share. Notably, it added 3.04 Lakh users in the month, more than any other competitor in the top 10. 

To note, Groww’s net active client additions in October were approximately 1.5X the combined additions of the next four largest brokers by active client base, Angel One, Zerodha, ICICI Securities and Upstox, which collectively added around 2.02 lakh active clients. 

But the positions below saw an intriguing shakeup. 

Zerodha, after losing clients in many months over the past year, slipped from second place. 

Angel One overtook Zerodha, adding around 2.4 Lakh users to take its active user count to 69.99 Lakh and its market share to 15.3%. It grew at a 3.3% rate over the past month to overtake Zerodha. 

“During the quarter, Angel One acquired nearly 15 lakh new clients, up 11.6% from the previous quarter, taking its client base to 3.99 Cr by September before it crossed 4 Cr in October. Its wealth management business continued to scale, with assets under management rising 19.1% quarter-on-quarter and 160.5% year-on-year to ₹16,000 Cr,” the company said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, more than 32K users or around 0.5% of Zerodha’s active user base turned inactive over the previous month. It ended the month with 67.59 Lakh users, compared to 67.92 Lakh users in the previous month, although its market share remained nearly unchanged at 14.7%. 

ICICI Securities held its fourth place with 21.64 Lakh active users, adding 3.7 Lakh users in October to take its market share to 4.7% market share. 

In fifth place, Upstox shed 0.6% of its user base as the startup saw 11.3 Lakh users leave to bring its active user count down to 18.43 Lakh with a market share of just 4%. 

Kotak Securities occupied sixth position with 14.05 Lakh active users while HDFC Securities finished seventh with 13.61 Lakh active users. The two bank-linked brokerages grew their user base by 0.9% and 0.5% respectively. 

Meanwhile, Dhan, in eighth place, added nearly 26K users over the past, as its user base increased 2.3% to 11.47 Lakh from 11.21 Lakh in September. It was able to match Groww in terms of growth rate to become the second fastest growing brokerage among the top 10 after Angel One. 

SBI Securities lost the most users after Zerodha, with an exodus of 17K users or 1.7% of its user base. The retail stockbroking subsidiary of SBI Capital Markets saw its active user count decline to 10.04 Lakh compared to 10.21 Lakh in September. 

Rounding off the top 10, Motilal Oswal’s active user count grew 0.8% to 9.16 Lakh from 9.09 Lakh.

Beyond the top 10, Sahi added 34,372 active clients during October, adding to its bid to solidify its name in the discount brokerage space. 

Markets Recover In The Month Of October

October marked a modest recovery for Indian equities after September’s sharp correction, although foreign investor selling remained elevated. The Nifty 50 rose 2.81% while Sensex gained over 3%. The gains ended the benchmarks’ two-month losing streak, but the recovery was not broad-based, with mid- and small-cap stocks continuing to face pressure. 

As per data shared by Bajaj Broking, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of ₹45,162 Cr in October, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth ₹62,220 Cr on a net basis. However, foreign selling eased in the second half of the month, with FPIs turning net buyers and investing ₹13,112 Cr between October 16 and 31, after pulling out nearly ₹47,955 Cr in the first fortnight.

“Going ahead, the reversal in FII flows is an encouraging signal for sentiment, though elevated crude and global event risk could temper the momentum,” Pabitro Mukherjee, Deputy Vice President-Research, Bajaj Broking had noted.

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