(Reuters) – Indian brokerage Angel One on Wednesday reported a fall in fourth-quarter profit, hurt by tighter regulations in the derivatives segment and weak equity markets.
The company, which competes with firms such as Zerodha, Groww and Upstox, reported quarterly profit of 1.75 billion rupees ($20.5 million), down 49% from 3.40 billion rupees a year earlier.
India’s market regulator in October tightened the rules for equity derivatives to control the frenzy in the derivative markets.
The regulator had raised the entry barrier and made it costlier to trade in equity derivatives.
Additionally, a 0.5% drop in the benchmark Nifty 50 index from January to March after a decline of 8% in the December quarter also hit market sentiments, leading to a 30.5% fall in Angel One’s orders in the three months ended March 31.
The company’s fourth-quarter revenue from operations fell 22% to 10.56 billion rupees from a year ago, with gross client acquisition dropping 44%.
Shares of the company ended 1.5% higher ahead of the results.
($1 = 85.5820 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nishit Navin)
