(Reuters) – Indian brokerage firm Angel One reported higher second-quarter profit on Monday, helped by increased trading activity in a period when local stock markets registered strong growth.
The company’s profit rose 39% to 4.23 billion rupees ($50.4 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from 3.04 billion rupees a year earlier.
India’s benchmark stock indexes clocked multiple record highs during July-September and rose for the sixth consecutive quarter, aided by a strong economy and inflows from domestic institutional and individual investors.
The sustained growth in the equity market led to Angel One’s orders jumping 44.5%, which helped its total revenue rise to 15.15 billion rupees from 10.48 billion rupees a year ago.
The company’s total client base rose 61% to 27.5 million year-on-year.
Its expenses, however, surged 47% to 9.44 billion rupees, largely due to a 73% rise in employee-related expenses.
The company cited employee and stock options costs “on account of onboarding of talent in wealth, tech, product and data analytics,” for the higher expenses.
Angel One, which competes with startups such as Zerodha, Groww and Upstox, said its share in India’s demat accounts rose to 15.7% from 13.2% a year earlier.
The company’s shares ended 0.7% higher ahead of results on Monday. The stock has declined about 22% so far this year.
($1 = 84.0180 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Dimpal Gulwani; Editing by Varun H K)
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