Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday, September 24, that capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) must reveal the names of the ‘big players’ who have been making profits at the expense of small retail investors. Amid the Congress vs SEBI row where the opposition has repeatedly attacked SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch over corruption charges, Gandhi took to microblogging platform ‘X’ and claimed that small investors have lost as much as ₹1.8 lakh crore in three years.
"Uncontrolled F&O trading has grown 45x in five years. 90 per cent of small investors have lost ₹1.8 lakh crore in three years. SEBI must reveal the names of the so called “Big Players“ making a killing at their expense," said the leader of the Opposition of Lok Sabha in a post on ‘X’.
According to a recent study conducted by SEBI, more than 91 per cent, or 73 lakh, of individual traders lost money in the F&O segment in FY24, with an average net loss of ₹1.2 lakh per person. Further, 93 per cent of over one crore individual F&O traders incurred average losses of about ₹2 lakh per trader (inclusive of transaction costs) during the three years from FY22 to FY24.
The aggregate losses of such traders exceeded ₹1.8 lakh crore during the period. The study said in FY24 alone, individuals incurred about ₹75,000 crore in net losses. It found the top 3.5 per cent of loss-makers -- about 4 lakh traders -- faced an average loss of ₹28 lakh per person over the same period, inclusive of transaction costs.
On the other hand, only 7.2 per cent of individual F&O traders made a profit over the period of three years and only one per cent of individual traders managed to earn profits exceeding ₹1 lakh after adjusting for transaction costs.
Moreover, the number of retail traders, or individual traders, has almost doubled in two years to about 96 lakh in FY24 from about 51 lakh in FY22. Although such investors contributed about 30 per cent to the total turnover in FY24, they are a clear majority in number terms, as 99.8 per cent of total traders in the equity F&O segment are individuals.
"The availability of sophisticated trading platforms and lower transaction costs have enabled retail investors to actively trade in options and futures contracts, contributing to the surge in market liquidity," said SEBI.
The regulator said rapid growth in F&O trading activity has highlighted the need for investor education and risk management practices, as a significant proportion of retail traders continued to incur losses in the market.
