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Zerodha Replaces ICICI Securities As India’s Largest Broker

Zerodha is now India’s No. 1 stock broker. 



The National Stock Exchange (NSE) building stands in Mumbai, India, on Monday. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) building stands in Mumbai, India, on Monday. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Discount broking firm Zerodha is now India’s largest brokerage house replacing ICICI Securities Ltd.

The Bengaluru-based company had a little more than 8.47 lakh investors and traders actively using its services as of December, according data released by the National Stock Exchange.

Easy access and transparency in the form no additional charges helped Zerodha become largest broking firm in India, Co-Founder Nikhil Kamath told BloombergQuint.

Among the top 15 brokerage firms, five including ICICI Securities, HDFC Securities, Sharekhan, IIFL and Geojit Financial saw a decline in their total active clients. An active client is one who has bought a firm’s products or used its services at least once in the last 12 months. At the end of 2018, more than 89 lakh active clients traded on the country’s largest bourse.

ICICI Securities, which derives more than half of its revenue from broking, had close to 8.44 lakh active clients as December. It lost clients in the last two months of 2018, according to data compiled by BloombergQuint. The company’s brokerage yields have been declining due to pricing pressure in the industry, mainly because of players like Zerodha.