Leading brokers are expected to increase brokerage rates in the coming weeks, as they navigate a series of regulatory changes that are expected to squeeze profitability. According to industry sources, top brokers may soon begin charging for equity trades and raise the flat fees for intra-day and derivatives trading by 10-30 per cent. Several smaller players have already hiked their brokerage charges, signalling a potential end to the zero-brokerage era that has drawn millions of new investors into the stock market and fuelled active trading.
Kamlesh Chandra Varshney, a whole-time member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), said on Friday that the market regulator in the last three months had removed around 15,000 content sites linked to unregistered finfluencers or providing unauthorised investment advice. Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest, he said there was successful engagement with the technology providers who are complying with the regulator's request.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) plans to mandate the UPI block mechanism, also known as the ASBA-like facility, in the secondary market for Qualified Stock Brokers (QSBs). QSBs are brokers with larger client sizes and thus more significance in the market ecosystem.
'...you evaluate three key factors before committing your money.'
With Rs 17,087 crore raised so far this calendar year, the total is already 2.4 times that of the full year of 2023, which stood at Rs 7,266 crore.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) withdrew Rs 14,790 crore ($1.8 billion) from financial stocks in the first half of August, driven by global risk aversion sparked by US recession fears. Additional factors contributing to the decline in banking stocks included subdued earnings growth in the June quarter, concerns about slowing deposit growth, and stricter liquidity norms imposed by the Reserve Bank of India.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed sweeping changes to the rights issue framework to enhance its attractiveness, aiming to make it the preferred route for additional fundraising by listed companies. Among the changes proposed by the market regulator are reducing the timeline to first 20 days and then to just three days, allowing shareholders to renounce their rights entitlement to investors of their choice, and eliminating the requirement to appoint an investment banker or file a draft letter of offer.
Pre-initial public offering (IPO) allotments have lost favour amid buoyancy in the market and increase in average float size this year. After hitting a record high in 2023, they have come to a halt, with just three companies opting for such placements totalling Rs 235 crore. This compares to eight deals worth Rs 648 crore during the same period of the previous year.
So far this year, bankers have earned Rs 1,226 crore for handling 45 IPOs, which together mobilised Rs 48,363 crore.
Out of 3,871 recovery certificates issued by the regulator in various cases, 807 have been certified as difficult to recover.
Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi's) measures to curb speculative activity in the Rs 450-trillion-a-day futures and options (F&O) market is not a case of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater," whole-time member (WTM) Ananth Narayan said on Friday. "As a regulator, we are conscious that we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater. "When it comes to frenzied trading in options nearing expiry, however, it is difficult to see any baby in this bathwater," he said while delivering his address at the 21st FICCI Annual Capital Markets Conference.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Monday proposed expanding the scope of regulations prohibiting insider trading to a wider group of people, including those connected to the officials in access to price-sensitive information. The market regulator has suggested changes in the definition of "connected persons" and "relative" to address any gaps in the norms and possible violations.
Brokers believe that the higher charges may not completely deter investors from taking bets in F&O but could help cool down some activity, as the threshold to break even rises.
Sebi's mandate restraining mutual funds, stock brokers, and other intermediaries from associating with finfluencers who do not come under the Sebi ambit will impact the earnings of finfluencers through sponsorships, tie-ups, or referral links, as these may dry up due to the restrictions.
Shares of brokerages and market infrastructure institutions (MIIs) witnessed heavy selling pressure following the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) pivot to a uniform fee structure, which analysts fear could dent revenues. Discount brokerages, which currently benefit from a spread between client charges and exchange fees, are expected to be most affected. Shares of Angel One, the third-largest brokerage by active clients, fell 8.7 per cent. Groww and Zerodha, the largest brokerages, are not publicly listed.
In June, Sensex went up 6.6% and Nifty 6.9%, their best monthly gains since December 2023.
Cases of front-running mostly happen when large asset managers and intermediaries are involved in bulk trades as their transaction size is generally big enough to impact the stock price.
'This trend will continue as long as the bull run continues.'
This year's tally is the second best ever after 2022 when 16 firms raised Rs 40,311 crore, led by LIC's biggest-ever IPO.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed stricter eligibility criteria for adding and retaining stocks in the futures and options (F&O) segment, which accounts for the bulk of the trading volumes. The proposal-which comes six years after the securities regulator last revised the stock selection framework---is much awaited by the market players as the derivatives stock list has largely remained stagnant for the last two years.
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