Source: Entrackr
India’s equity market saw less active participation for the second consecutive month in July 2025. Data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) reported active investor users dropped by 4% to 45.96 million compared to 47.89 million in June, which was down from the record high of 49.67 million in January this year.
Groww Remains Number One.
Online investment platform Groww remains the largest stockbroker in the country. It had 12.35 million active clients in July, giving it a 26.87% market share, although it has decreased its month-on-month by 1.81% from 12.58 million in June, according to NSE data.
Zerodha remained in second place with 7.43 million active clients and a market share of 16.17% which is 2% lower than in the preceding month. In third place, Angel One had 7.2 million clients, which accounted for 15.66% of the market share, but down 1.68%.
Lastly, in fourth place, Ratan Tata-backed Upstox had 2.47 million clients, giving it a market share of 5.38% after a fall of 3.77% in users from June.
Conventional Brokers Maintain Status Quo
Large conventional brokers showed little change in July. ICICI Direct had 1.96 million clients (4.26% share), HDFC Securities had 1.57 million clients (3.43% share), and Kotak Securities had 1.44 million clients (3.14% share).
Among newer brokers, Dhan climbed to the 9th position with one million users and 2.17% market share. INDmoney was in 11th position with 0.81 million users (1.76% share).
Paytm Money was one of the handful of platforms that showed positive momentum, growing its user base 3% month-on-month to 0.75 million users and achieving a market share of 1.62%. Sharekhan fell 2.70% to a user base of 0.61 million users.
The most significant declines were found with Mirae Asset, which had a user loss of 8% and totaled 0.42 million users, and PhonePe saw a decline of 6% in its users to a total of 0.33 million.
Market Outlook
The decline in active investors is indicative of a decline in retail participation in equity markets. The decline could potentially be linked to persistent downtrend markets, profit booking, or a move towards other asset classes by retail-based investors.
While a decline in active retail investors has emerged, Groww continues to lead the industry by a sizable amount, with more than 10 million active clients well in the lead of its nearest competitor. Paytm Money continues to grow, based on an increase in total clients, revealing there is still growth potential for a platform that can attract and retain customers.
At this point, most brokers are likely busy trying to engage their existing investors while moving to a competitive approach for new sign-ups in a cooling market.
