The number of intraday traders in India's equity cash market jumped 300% between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, by when seven out of ten were making losses, the markets regulator said in a study on Wednesday.
Those younger than 30 years made up nearly half of all intraday traders in fiscal 2023, but accounted for three-fourth of the lossmakers, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said. 80% of traders who executed more than 500 trades in a year made losses, SEBI said in its study.
India has been warning about the risks from speculative trading by so-called retail investors.
The government on Tuesday raised taxes on gains from equity investments and also on derivative transactions.
It hiked the tax on gains from stocks held for less than one year to 20% from 15%, and for those held for more than one year to 12.5% from 10%.
In January last year, SEBI had said that nine out of ten stock derivative traders made losses.
"The study is expected to enhance awareness among individual traders about the risks involved in intraday trading in equity cash segment," SEBI said on Wednesday.
