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Share trading statistics
Coronavirus has sent shockwaves through the economy.
Updated

Quick overview
- The BSE Sensex was down to just under 26,000 points on March 23, a drop of roughly 40% from where it was in the month prior
- Major share trading and brokerage platforms have seen an average website traffic uptick of 43% from February to March of this year
- Search data suggests more people are currently looking up how to buy rather than sell stocks
Coronavirus share trading trends in India
Finder analysis of SEMrush and Google Trends data suggests Indians have been paying attention to the recent price declines. Analysis of website traffic from SEMrush reveals many share trading platforms and brokerages are seeing spikes in website traffic. Of the 7 brands included in the analysis, 2 saw their traffic increase of 50% or more, and 5 saw their traffic increase between 25.64% and 44.38%. Overall, there was a 43.24% uptick in Indians visiting these share trading and brokerage platforms on average.
Upstox experienced the biggest traffic increase from February to March with a month-on-month traffic increase of 62.96%. IndiaInfoline also saw a big spike with a 50% increase followed by OANDA (44.38%), IG (43.74%) and Zerodha (42.63%). Sharekhan and ICICI Bank saw smaller positive increases, at 33.33% and 25.64%, respectively.
Platform | Percentage MoM increase from Feb20 – Mar20 |
---|---|
IG | 43.74% |
OANDA | 44.38% |
Zerodha | 42.63% |
IndiaInfoline | 50% |
ICICI Bank | 25.64% |
Sharekhan | 33.33% |
Upstox | 62.96% |
Are Indian adults buying or selling stocks?
SEMrush data suggests more people were interested in share trading in March than in February but it doesn’t tell us if they’re more interested in selling or buying – for that we’ll need to take a look at Google Trends data.
Online search interest for both buying and selling shares has spiked in April so far. While some investors might be looking to sell their shares before prices drop further, search interest is much higher for buying shares.
Week | Buy stocks | Sell stocks |
---|---|---|
1/4/19 | 4 | 0 |
1/5/19 | 3 | 3 |
1/6/19 | 7 | 0 |
1/7/19 | 3 | 3 |
1/8/19 | 6 | 0 |
1/9/19 | 3 | 0 |
1/10/19 | 7 | 0 |
1/11/19 | 5 | 3 |
1/12/19 | 2 | 2 |
1/1/20 | 5 | 5 |
1/2/20 | 3 | 0 |
1/3/20 | 14 | 5 |
1/4/20 | 19 | 9 |
How does India compare to the rest of the world?
The Google Trends data for India is consistent with global trends with search interest in buying shares skyrocketing in March and remaining high in April.
Week | Buy shares: (Worldwide) | Sell shares: (Worldwide) |
---|---|---|
28/04/2019 | 24 | 8 |
05/05/2019 | 23 | 6 |
12/05/2019 | 22 | 5 |
19/05/2019 | 22 | 7 |
26/05/2019 | 23 | 6 |
02/06/2019 | 19 | 6 |
09/06/2019 | 19 | 6 |
16/06/2019 | 20 | 7 |
23/06/2019 | 18 | 6 |
30/06/2019 | 18 | 6 |
07/07/2019 | 16 | 5 |
14/07/2019 | 22 | 6 |
21/07/2019 | 18 | 6 |
28/07/2019 | 22 | 7 |
04/08/2019 | 19 | 6 |
11/08/2019 | 18 | 7 |
18/08/2019 | 18 | 7 |
25/08/2019 | 21 | 5 |
01/09/2019 | 19 | 6 |
08/09/2019 | 20 | 6 |
15/09/2019 | 23 | 6 |
22/09/2019 | 20 | 7 |
29/09/2019 | 22 | 9 |
06/10/2019 | 21 | 6 |
13/10/2019 | 22 | 6 |
20/10/2019 | 17 | 6 |
27/10/2019 | 21 | 7 |
03/11/2019 | 23 | 8 |
10/11/2019 | 21 | 8 |
17/11/2019 | 25 | 7 |
24/11/2019 | 22 | 6 |
01/12/2019 | 20 | 8 |
08/12/2019 | 22 | 6 |
15/12/2019 | 23 | 6 |
22/12/2019 | 18 | 5 |
29/12/2019 | 22 | 6 |
05/01/2020 | 23 | 6 |
12/01/2020 | 23 | 6 |
19/01/2020 | 22 | 8 |
26/01/2020 | 24 | 6 |
02/02/2020 | 30 | 9 |
09/02/2020 | 24 | 8 |
16/02/2020 | 26 | 10 |
23/02/2020 | 34 | 8 |
01/03/2020 | 39 | 10 |
08/03/2020 | 90 | 11 |
15/03/2020 | 100 | 13 |
22/03/2020 | 75 | 11 |
29/03/2020 | 63 | 9 |
05/04/2020 | 57 | 9 |
12/04/2020 | 58 | 12 |
19/04/2020 | 75 | 10 |
Out of the 33 countries where there was enough data for a comparison of the term “buy shares”, India ranked in the middle at 8th for a period of 30 days across April and March. Overall, there has been more search interest for share buying in India than in countries like the Philippines, Switzerland, Thailand, Indonesia and Germany but less than countries like Ireland, the UK and South Africa. Interestingly, India’s rankings remain within this range over the past 5 years, with India ranking 9th for search interest in the last 12 months and 7th over the last 5 years, suggesting share trading interest has grown in line with worldwide interest.
Overall Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have seen the most interest in the term “buy shares” over the last 30 days and last 12 months. Comparing the rankings from 5 years ago to the last 30 days reveals New Zealand has had the biggest search interest ranking increase (3), followed by Vietnam (2), the United States (2) and Canada (2). Perhaps it’s retail investors in these countries that are most optimistic about investing opportunities as a result of coronavirus market movements.
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