Six of India's top 10 brokers experienced a year-on-year decline in active client base for FY26, according to data from NSE. Upstox recorded the steepest decline at 27.64%, followed by Zerodha at 12.62% and Motilal Oswal Financial Services at 11.14%. Other major brokers also posted declines, with Angel One's client base falling 10.75%, while HDFC Securities and Kotak Securities posted declines of 8.75% and 6.82% respectively. The total number of active clients on NSE declined to 4.57 crore at the end of FY26, compared with 4.92 crore a year earlier. As per Angel One, the decline was visible across the year rather than being confined to a specific quarter, indicating a broad-based slowdown in activity.
Broking officials attributed the decline to a combination of market volatility, regulatory tightening and a shift in investor behaviour. Krishna Rao, MD & Co-head — Equity Broking Group at JM Financial Services, explained that "higher volatility compounded by geopolitical uncertainty, tighter regulations in the derivatives segment, and a selective investor mindset have all reduced trading activity, especially among new participants." Ashish Rathi, head — Retail Business at HDFC Securities, noted that volatility driven by tariffs and geopolitical tensions kept returns muted and slowed new client additions. He added that "a large portion of retail investors have also been focused on mid and small caps, which haven't performed well over the past year, due to which many are sitting on losses and are less active in the market."
Segment-wise data revealed that the cash market had 3.58 crore active clients, while the futures and options segment had about 85 lakh. The combined active client base across segments stood at 3.79 crore. For the year ended March 31, the Nifty fell 5%, while the Sensex declined 7% from a year earlier. The Nifty Smallcap 250 and Nifty Microcap 250 dropped 5.4% and 8.7% respectively, while the Nifty Midcap 150 rose 1.6%. As per Angel One, monthly trends showed several periods of negative net additions, with new account openings failing to offset inactivity and closures, pointing to a rise in dormant accounts.
Among discount brokers, Groww increased its share to 28.31% from 26.26%, showing stronger client additions relative to peers. During the March quarter, it contributed 116% of net additions in January, 75% in February, and 80% in March. Other large platforms saw declines, with Zerodha falling to 15.08% from 16.03%, while Angel One dropped to 14.79% from 15.4%. Upstox saw its share reduce to 4.35% from 5.58%. Some firms reported gains despite the overall slowdown, with ICICI Securities rising to 4.57% from 3.96%, SBI Securities increasing to 2.55% from 1.99%, and Dhan recording a modest gain to 2.27%. Kotak Securities remained steady at about 3.03%, while HDFC Securities and Motilal Oswal Financial Services posted marginal declines.
Despite the overall decline, market leader Groww, along with ICICI Securities, SBICAP Securities and Dhan saw an increase in active clients during the period. In terms of rankings, ICICI Securities overtook Upstox to become the fourth-largest broker by active clients, while SBICAP Securities and Dhan moved ahead of Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Krishna Rao from JM Financial noted that "retail clients are becoming more mindful about risk, costs and market conditions, and this could be healthy for overall market quality going forward." The data points to slower retail engagement and a change in how activity is distributed across brokerage firms, with investments in the securities market being subject to market risks.
