Margin funding book sees highest liquidation in a day

The combined NSE and BSE margin trading facility book declined by almost ₹3,000 crore on a net basis to ₹1.51 trillion on Friday from ₹1.54 trillion a day earlier, according to the portal.

If a stock falls, the broker makes a margin call, asking the client to provide additional margin or top up the haircut. If the client provides the additional margin, the position is retained. Failure to top up forces the broker to square off the client's position.

The MTF book is dominated by the NSE, which accounts for 95.1% of the total, or ₹1.43 trillion, with the BSE accounting for the rest. Brokers have funded positions in 644 actively traded stocks on the NSE and 197 stocks on the BSE, according to mtf.trading.

While Friday saw the biggest net outflow from the MTF book, the largest inflow occurred on 1 October 2025, when funding rose by ₹5,150 crore after the Monetary Policy Committee left its benchmark lending rate unchanged, driving a 0.9% rally in the Nifty.

Shifting dynamics

Although the total MTF book is equivalent to about 1.5 days of turnover on the NSE, the book has grown 36% over the past year. This comes amid regulatory curbs on equity options trading and the government's decision to raise the securities transaction tax on futures by 150% and on options by 50%, effective April this year.

Ram Sahgal

Ram Sahgal is a deputy editor at Mint. He has over 20 years of experience in journalism, with previous roles at The Intelligent Investor, Bombay Times, The Economic Times, and The New Indian Express. Between his media roles, he briefly worked at a commodities exchange before returning to his true passion, business journalism. Ram graduated in liberal arts from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, where he studied films, which explains his move to Bombay Times, where he covered the film industry during the rise of Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt. He took a leap of faith to transfer to The Economic Times, and thanks to his restless mind, later moved to cover the commodities beat. Over the past three years, Ram has been tracking the stock markets at Mint. His focus areas include writing about market infrastructure institutions, brokerages, derivatives, and related regulations. His hobbies include spotting trains and understanding the locomotives that power them. In his free time, he takes his octogenarian mother out for drives and goes to the cinema with her on weekends. If he has a dream, it is to write a screenplay for a movie. For now, he enjoys viewing market data on NSE and BSE, observing the shifting mood of Mr Market, and conversing with market experts.