Eight of the top 10 brokers saw a drop in active investors in February. The country’s largest brokerage house Groww saw its active investors drop by more than 2.2 lakh. The decline comes even as Groww is preparing for an IPO. The top three brokers, Groww, Zerodha and Angel One, had investor bases of around 1.32 crore, 81 lakh and 78 lakh, respectively as of January. The market regulator Sebi clamped down on derivatives trading late last year after several studies found that around 90 percent of retail investors lost money in F & O trading. Elevated valuations, a slowing economy, weak earnings growth and the global tariff war under the new Trump administration have further weighed on the overall market sentiment. Most broking firms could see a 30-50 percent hit to the topline during the second half of FY 25. The total number of demat accounts registered with NSDL and CDSL has reached 19 crore, up from 18.8 crore in the previous month. The new demat account creations have also dropped to a 21-month low. Around 22.6 lakh new accounts were added during the month, the slowest growth since May 2023 and the second consecutive month of deceleration, data showed.