The current statistics show that India has seen a considerable surge in stock traders and investors in recent years. The virtual speculation trend that began in the USA in the 2010s is now a part of the Indian lifestyle too! Stocks, IPOs, NFTs and mutual funds have become household terms where families often consider analyzing the patterns to gain some quick bucks. Simultaneously, though stock trading was an entirely isolated occupation till very recently, it is now being practiced by a good section of the population.
Numbers are decisive but they show a true picture. The latest figures show that India has about 11 crore demat account holders in 2023 as compared to 8 crores in the previous fiscal. This accounts for about 3% of the Indian household sector apart from finance bodies and commercial conglomerates. Nonetheless, the trend is inspiring scores of youngsters to try out their analysis and define what stocks would land where. The figures are definitely less than those of much-developed national economies and might look demoralizing, however, it must be noted that even small percentages in India point to huge physical numbers.
To assist this growth, Indian software giants and startups have begun creating a wave of new free demat apps. Most of these applications are regulated by national depositories and brokers and are freely available for the purpose of installation on the App Store (iOS) and the Play Store (Android). For our readers new to this practice, we’ll proceed by explaining what a demat account is and how one can set up their profiles on the free-to-use applications.
Demat or a dematerialised account refers to a new-age medium of storing old paper stock certificates. It converts the stock transactions into electronic shares which can be stored on a device and used from any corner of the world having connectivity. Securities, once held electronically, are deemed to be safe from thefts which were common earlier.
To speak further, your shares are also protected from usual damage or your broker going bankrupt as these are held within depositories which regulate many stock brokers under one umbrella. Today, a demat account is where you store all your purchases while a trading account is a profile using which you trade on the system of Stock Exchanges. Naturally, it is now a norm or a precondition to have a demat account set before trading on your favorite stocks and IPOs.
The stock market in India has come up with the development of many free demat account opening apps, many of which charge zero brokerage on intraday or delivery trades. Here’s a list of applications that come up with a feature of no annual charges on opening up a free demat account in India.
- Upstox Free demat account
- Sharekhan demat account
- ICICI Direct demat account
- Zerodha demat account
- Angel Broking demat account
- HDFC Securities demat account
- 5 Paisa Free demat account
- FYERS Free demat account
- India Infoline Free demat account
- Motilal Oswal demat account
- Kotak Securities demat account
- Groww Free demat account
- Finvasia demat account
- Trustline demat account
- GCL Securities demat account
- Prostocks demat account
- Dhan demat account
- Angel One demat account
- Karvy Free demat account
- Samco free demat account
- Reliance Smart Money Free demat account
- Stock Holding Corporation of India
- SMC Invest demat account
- Bajaj Finserv Free demat account
- Alice Blue free demat account
- Choice Broking free demat account
- PL India Free demat account
- Paytm Money demat account
- SBI Securities demat account
As investing in equity becomes common in India, so does the flexibility of rules and regulations of the NSDL and CDSL change. The ratings of the above stock brokers mandate who takes the most sections of ordinary investors in India. For knowledge, the above brokers have ratings ranging from 7-9.5 as per popular public and expert surveys. Margins offered, shareholder credibility, trading platforms provided, brokerage amounts, annual AMC charges, customer numbers, and expert predictability reliance are among the many parameters on which these brokers can be compared and ranked upon.
The process of trading has three requirements – a bank account, a trading account and finally a demat account. In practice, there exist multiple three-in-one demat account providers which help in reducing the burden of management from the customers. The process of opening a free demat app is not so cumbersome after all. Here are the basic steps that you will be asked to follow everywhere-
- Find a reliable and reputed depository participant or broker for the specificity of services. Look for public reviews and ratings as well as long-term brokerage costs involved for each trade that you perform.
- Visit their official website or authentic application and proceed to fill out your basic personal details in the form provided. This might include your name, date of birth etc.
- This step usually follows another where a user is asked to fill out his/her/their contact information such as phone number, fax, email IDs, addresses etc.
- In subsequent steps, users may also be asked to fill in details such as Aadhar number, and PAN card number (it is a must).
- Carrying forward, free demat account opening apps ask their users for Bank details like account number, IFSC code, branch code etc. Bank details are extremely important as the trading transactions like crediting and debiting take place between the demat account and the Bank account.
- Post this, as a part of the know-your-customer (KYC) procedure, some brokers ask for document uploads such as proof of residence etc.
- Verification can also take place in a one-to-one format where brokerage firms send agents to verify their potential customers. On their visit, the agents also counsel their customers to understand their trading needs and requirements.
- Lastly, some sites ask for an electronic signature to append credibility to the registration process.
- Finally, as all the details are entered, one must take care to re-check everything and click on form submission.
This completes the process of opening a free demat account and allows customers to sit in the comfort of their homes and dive into the action-filled world of the Indian Stock Market!