CDSL tumbles 6% after over 5% equities change hands on NSE via block deals

Shares of Central Depository Services (India) slipped 6 per cent to Rs 985 in Wednesday’s intra-day trade, after over 5 per cent of the company's equities changed hands on the exchange via block deals.

Till 09:56 am; around 7.7 million shares, which represented 7.4 per cent of total equity of CDSL changed hands on the NSE, exchange data shows. The names of the buyers and sellers were not ascertained immediately.

As on March 31, 2023, BSE, the promoter, held 20.9 million shares or 20 per cent stake in CDSL, data showed.

CDSL is one of the two depositories in India and the only listed one in the country, the other being National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL). It facilitates holding and transacting in securities in electronic form and facilitates settlement of trades on stock exchanges. On the other hand, BSE is the oldest and India's first equity index launched in the country.

Growth of the business of depositories is directly proportional to the growth of capital markets. The past few years have witnessed increase in activities by retail investors in the capital market.

Within financial assets, the allocation towards equities has been increasing steadily due to the relatively low base, given that the retail investors have traditionally been under-invested in equities.