Average daily turnover through mobile trading on the NSE in the cash market jumped to a record 24.3% of total turnover in August compared with about 10% a year ago and 2% five years ago, writes The Economic Times. It’s risen on the BSE as well, to 14.7% in August from 5.10% a year ago. The top five brokers in India in terms of active clients said 80-85% of them currently trade through mobile phones. 

 

“The need to make transactions easier increased with the lockdown and has brought about a fundamental change in the way investors trade in the country — from desktop to mobile devices,” said Ravi Kumar, CEO, Upstox. “Currently, over 85% of Upstox customers carry out daily trades on smartphones as more than 75% of our customer base of 1.2 million as of July 2020 is in the age group of 18–35.” 

 

Generally, phone trade is the preserve of retail investors and their participation in the stock market has risen to a 15-year high. Nearly 4 million new retail investors have entered the stock market between March 1 and August 31, according to NSDL and CDSL data. 

 

 “Majority of the new customers added in the last five months are in the age group between 20 and 30 and mobile is a primary medium for them,” said Nithin Kamath, founder of Zerodha. “The ease of punching trades through new powerful applications and cheap data has promoted investors to switch to transacting through their phone and about 80% of our clients are trading through mobile.”