BSE’s financial results announcement on Tuesday revealed that Zerodha Broking was the second largest shareholder in the exchange after the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). Zerodha Broking has hiked its stake in BSE to 4.41 per cent currently from 1.61 per cent in September 2020, data show. LIC owns 5.61 per cent stake in BSE.
The exchange has also announced a bonus issue of two shares on every one share held currently.
Nithin Kamath, co-founder, CEO of Zerodha, told BusinessLine that the BSE stake purchase was mainly a treasury operation. It is the only stock broking firm owning such a huge stake in an exchange in India.
BSE had posted an 86 per cent in net profit at ₹58.58 crore for the quarter ended December 2021 against ₹31.44 crore reported in the year-ago period. Revenues for the quarter rose to ₹192.67 crore (₹120.59 crore). BSE reported record profit growth for the nine months of the current financial year (FY), which exceeded last FY’s full year net profits. BSE nine months net profit (attributed to shareholders) for FY 2021-22 stood at ₹179 crore against last full year’s net of ₹144 crore. BSE was on course to nearly doubling its net profits during this FY from the last, analysts said.
To divest stake in StarMF
The sharp spike in BSE’s net profit was in line with high growth in National Stock Exchange (NSE) net profits. BSE told analysts that it was looking for investor for its StartMF (mutual funds transactions platform) at a right valuation. BSE said it had received 12.8 crore mutual fund transitions on its StarMF platform during the nine months of current FY which was a near 100 per cent growth from the previous year.
BSE’s average daily turnover in cash markets during these nine months of the current FY witnessed a rise of 49 per cent to ₹5,500 crore from from the previous year’s corresponding period. During the same period, the exchange earned ₹149 crore in transaction charges from ₹64 crore earlier.
It now has a market share of between 3-4 per cent in equity derivatives and the same has doubled in the commodity derivatives segment, where it is ahead of the NSE. The average daily turnover of BSE in commodity derivatives for the quarter ended December 2021 increased by 80 per cent to ₹4,910 crore from ₹2,730 crore in the same period last year, with market share increasing to 12.5 per cent from 7.4 per cent.