BSE's small brokers are folding up as technology, regulations outpace them

India had slightly more than 2,400 brokerages as of December 24, down from more than 9,000 in March 2014.

More than three decades after starting as a broker on the Bombay Stock Exchange, Asia’s oldest bourse, Yogesh Choksey shut up shop last year, missing out on a record-breaking equity rally that would usually boost profits for brokerages.

“The business was no longer viable for a smaller setup like mine,” said Choksey, who opened his namesake firm in 1986 in the iconic Jeejeebhoy Towers, home to the BSE in the old business district of Mumbai.

Choksey, 65, is part of a dying breed of traditional stockbrokers in India, whose numbers have shrunk by about three quarters in less than six years. Smaller