The number of trades executed on the country’s two major stock exchanges, NSE and BSE, crossed 10 billion in FY25. During FY25, 9.7 billion trades were executed in the cash market on NSE. An additional 1 billion trades were executed on BSE, Asia’s oldest stock exchange. Data from both exchanges was considered in the analysis as they have a share of ongoing share trading activities in India over the years.
If we look at the 1990s, both figures are the highest now. In the years 1999 and 2000, 0.1 billion or 10 crore transactions were done in both the exchanges. Despite the fluctuations during the financial year 2025, this number has increased rapidly. The number of transactions on NSE has increased by 42.1 percent year on year and on BSE by 25 percent.
Alok Churiwala, former vice chairman of the BSE Brokers Forum and managing director of Churiwala Securities, said increased accessibility due to technology, rise in machine trading, and growing attraction of investors towards equity markets may have contributed to the deal activity. “There is a frenzy of interest in the markets,” he said. Recent volatility has also created opportunities for trading.
Geopolitical tensions in the global market, as well as US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, have also increased volatility. According to Chudiwala, the lack of other investment options has attracted investors to trading for additional returns. Chudiwala said that earlier, one had to call the broker’s offices to place orders for trading, but now this can be done through a mobile phone application even while waiting for a bus.
Independent market analyst Ambareesh Baliga believes that the recent volatility in the market during FY 2025 has affected investor sentiment.
He said, ‘Many people are doing short-term trading instead of investing, due to which the number of trades is high.’ He said that the growing investor base also has a role in this. The number of investor accounts has increased to 4.1 crores in FY 2025. This figure has risen by 15.6 crores since COVID.
According to market analysts, increasing algorithmic activities are also a major reason. An NSE study published in March said that most of the stocks in the NSE cash market are now traded through algorithms. With the help of algorithms, hundreds of thousands of orders can be placed per second.
Derivatives data is not available in this format. But derivatives trading has declined after the market regulator Sebi tightened rules to reduce speculative activities and protect small investors. The regulator has increased the minimum contract size for derivatives to Rs 15 lakh or Rs 20 lakh.
Sebi has also tightened the minimum amount required as margin before investing in this segment. The value of derivatives activity declined by more than 40 per cent following the move, UptoBrain had earlier reported. This happened amid increased market volatility. The BSE Sensex fell nearly 17 per cent from its all-time high of 85,978.25 in September 2024 to 71,425.01 in April 2025.