Groww And Angel One Took Nine In Ten Of October's New Clients, And Zerodha Lost Some

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Angel One overtook Zerodha to become India's second-largest stockbroker by active clients in October, according to National Stock Exchange data.

Angel One added nearly 2.43 lakh active clients to reach 69.98 lakh, taking its market share to 14.97 per cent. Zerodha fell to third, losing 32,435 clients to end at 67.59 lakh from 67.91 lakh in September, with a share of 14.46 per cent.

Groww retained the lead with more than 1.37 crore active clients and a 29.43 per cent share, after adding 3.04 lakh during the month, the highest of any broker. The industry's total active client base rose 1.33 per cent to 4.67 crore from 4.61 crore, an addition of roughly 6.15 lakh.

Several large brokers shrank. Upstox lost 11,348 clients to end at 18.43 lakh, SBI Securities lost 17,188 to reach 10.04 lakh, and Paytm Money recorded the steepest decline among the top 20 at 32,501 clients, down 4.26 per cent to 7.30 lakh.

ICICI Securities held fourth place at 21.64 lakh after adding 3,722. Kotak Securities added 12,895 to reach 14.05 lakh and HDFC Securities rose to 13.60 lakh from 13.54 lakh. Dhan added 25,739 to reach 11.47 lakh and Motilal Oswal 7,283 to reach 9.16 lakh.

Sahi was the fastest-growing broker in the top 20 for a second month, adding 34,372 clients to reach 3.15 lakh and a 0.67 per cent share, following an 11 per cent increase in September. PhonePe's Share.Market added 7,041 to reach 2.14 lakh, INDmoney 1,849 to reach 7.21 lakh and IIFL Securities 5,095 to reach 3.46 lakh.

The month this happened matters, because October was not a normal month for anyone holding a demat account.

Three companies listed. AceVector on 5 October, Zetwerk on 23 October and Jio Platforms on 28 October, the largest public issue in Indian history. Retail investors committed close to ₹26,000 crore to Jio alone, against a quota of roughly ₹9,516 crore, which means a very large number of applicants received shares and had a reason to transact once the stock opened.

That matters for how this table is built. The NSE counts an active client as one who has traded at least once in the preceding twelve months. Someone who had drifted away from the market, applied for Jio, received an allotment and sold on listing day re-enters the count. So does a first-time investor who opened an account to apply. A month with three listings, one of them historic, mechanically produces client numbers that a quiet month would not.

Groww tripled its monthly additions, from just over 1 lakh in September to 3.04 lakh in October. Angel One added 2.43 lakh. Neither of those is explained by a sudden change in product or pricing in thirty-one days.

None of which makes the growth fake. These are real accounts belonging to real people, and some proportion will stay and trade. But the correct question for November is what share of them does anything at all once there is no large IPO to apply for, and that number will say more about these franchises than October's did.

Zerodha going backwards in a record month is a statement about acquisition strategy rather than about the product.

Zerodha built the discount broking category in India and has never advertised in any serious way, run referral incentives or chased event-driven signups. That approach compounds beautifully when customers arrive because they have decided to trade. It does nothing at all in a month when the industry's growth is driven by people opening accounts for a specific event. Angel One, which does spend on acquisition, added 2.43 lakh. Groww, which does, added 3.04 lakh. Zerodha, which does not, lost 32,435.

The same logic explains the other declines. Upstox, SBI Securities and Paytm Money also shrank, which suggests the churn is concentrated among platforms that neither lead on brand nor spend aggressively to replace lapsed accounts.

For Groww the number cuts both ways, and the second quarter results said so. Revenue was effectively flat sequentially at ₹1,502 crore while the client base kept expanding, which means revenue per client was already falling before this month's additions. Adding 3.04 lakh clients in a single month does not reverse that. It extends it, unless the new accounts trade at the rate the old ones did.

The one genuinely encouraging number is Sahi, up 34,372 on a base of 3.15 lakh. That is a second consecutive month of the fastest growth in the top 20, which is how a challenger starts to look like a competitor rather than an experiment.

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