New Delhi, August 11: In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary said that retail investor losses have dropped to Rs.91,685 crore in FY26, down from Rs.1,12 lakh crore in FY25, an 18% decrease.
Tightened regulatory measures introduced by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) have helped lower the aggregate net losses suffered by retail investors in the equity Futures & Options (F&O) segment during FY26.
This includes a 20% decline in unique investors from 98.10 lakh in FY25 to 78.60 lakh in FY26. Despite that, the average loss per active retail trader actually rose marginally to Rs.1,16,654 from Rs.1,13,913, a 2.4% increase, as casual traders exited, but trading volumes increased by active traders.
Since November 2024, SEBI’s regulatory interventions have helped curb excessive speculation, leading to regulations including:
- Product Rationalization: Restricted exchanges to offering only one benchmark index weekly expiry contract per exchange.
- Contract Size Scaling: Raised the minimum contract value for index derivatives to ₹15–20 lakh.
- Margin & Risk Coverage: Increased extreme loss margins (ELM) for short option positions on expiry days and mandated upfront collection of option premiums from buyers.
- Position Limits & Monitoring: Implemented intraday monitoring of position limits and removed calendar spread benefit treatment on expiry days.
