• A stock broker is a financial institution that provides services to the investors in the capital market and facilitates them to buy and sell the securities like equities, bonds, commodities, currency, and bullion.

Business Model:-

Stock Brokers earn money by providing the following services:-

• Brokerage fee:- Brokerage business primarily consists of brokerage services that are offered to retail customers and institutional clients for trading equities, equity derivatives, currency derivatives, ETFs, and overseas securities. Brokerage fees are charged based on the volume and size of transactions customers enter into.
• Distribution:- Distribution business primarily consists of the distribution of financial products and services offered by third parties to the customers. These products include mutual funds, insurance products, portfolio management schemes, alternative investment funds, fixed deposits, loans, tax services, and pension products. Stock Brokers earn commissions from third parties for the distribution of their products, which may be in the form of recurring commissions for longer-term products.
• Investment Banking:- Investment banking business consists of equity capital markets services and financial advisory services that cater to corporate clients, the government, and financial sponsors. 

  Market Size:-

• The size of the Indian capital market stood at $2.5 trillion (trn) as of 31st March 2020.
  

Key Trends

• Low retail investor participation: Retail investors constitute only approximately 13.0% of the stock ownership in India. The number of Demat accounts in India is less than 10.0% of the number of banking accounts. This indicates a strong potential for greater participation of retail investors in Indian capital markets.
•  Lack of financial literacy:- Only 24.0% of people in the country are financially literate. 
• High reliance on banks and NBFCs for corporate funding: The growth of corporates in India has been fueled by the banking sector to a large extent. The share of corporate loans to total corporate credit is approximately 65.0%. 
• Increasing Free Float:-Driven by SEBI’s raising of minimum public shareholding to 25.0%, promoter holding has been on a decline. As a result, free float levels in India have been rising.

Key Drivers

• Ease of access: Supported by the boom in the telecom sector (internet and mobiles), as well as the launch of banking services on mobile phones and the rise of fin-tech companies that focus on customer experience, it is expected that accessibility of organized financial services will improve dramatically 
• Greater confidence in the markets: SEBI has taken a number of steps to improve corporate governance and disclosure standards and to curb malpractices such as insider trading. In the medium term, these steps will lead to greater trust and confidence in capital markets 
• Expected surge in IPOs:- Fundraising through public equity markets was at a record ₹1.7 trn in 2020, surpassing the previous high of ₹1.6 trn in 2017.
• Urbanization: The India Economic survey estimates the proportion of the population living in urban areas as approximately 30.0%. The World Bank Group estimates the share of India’s population living in areas with urban-like features is approximately 55.0%. It is expected that the trend of urbanization will continue at a rapid pace until 2050. This implies that a vast and growing proportion of the population will have access to financial products, thereby enhancing the allocation of savings to financial assets 
• Improving financial literacy levels: A number of focused programs are being run by the regulators towards this cause like NSE & BSE providing webinars and courses to empower people with the necessary knowledge.

Peers: - Since the company is in the business of providing broking platforms to its clients to trade on stock exchanges like NSE and BSE. Therefore, its relevant peers are JM Financial Limited, Anand Rathi Wealth Limited, and Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited