Brokers are important as they are the first one users approach to for creating their trading account. Full service brokers are the traditional brokers of stock market who offer their research advisory expertise and wealth creation experience to the trader and investor community.
As a first-time trader, users can seek various details such as stock advisory, may wish to access various industry & sector reports, and also may seek advisories to know the markets as well as the trading & investing best practices. Full-service brokers provide all these services to various types of traders and investors but all the services mentioned are not free all of them comes with a cost. Some charge less and some charge way too much that it may not possible to pay them and make a profit if the user is not generating very large returns over time.
What is a Full-Service Stock Broker?
As mentioned above, Full-service stockbrokers are those who are licensed financial broker or Dealer Company who offers a large variety of services to its customers, which includes research and advice, retirement planning, tax tips, and so on.
Full service brokers fulfill many purposes like providing knowledge on topics like financial planning, property planning, research, counseling, pension planning, tax guidelines and a lot more. For investors choosing a full service broker is considered a better option because they are much more dedicated towards the needs and values of their users. These brokers also have a product line that includes mutual funds, insurance, portfolio management, lending services as well as ETFs.
Selecting A Full-Service Broker in India – What to consider?
To choose the right full-service brokers you have to consider the following points:
- Research
- Branches & Physical Presence
- Stock recommendations, research and advice
- Brokerage Fees
- Customer Service
Hundreds of Full-Service Brokers are available in the market; therefore, choosing the right one may seem tough. Worry not. In this article, we are going to pick the 11 best full-service brokers in India.
Full Service Brokers in India – Top 10 Best Brokerage Firms
So, let’s have a look at the leading full-service brokers in India and their key features that might impact your demat account opening decision.
1. Angel Broking
Angel Broking is one the best full-service broker in India who offers a very affordable brokerage fee to its users. They charge flat 20 INR for each trade, which can be beneficial if the user is planning to save a huge amount while investing in the stock market.
Angel Broking: Key Features
- Angel Broking offers various value-added services such as stock advisory, investment in bonds such as corporate, tax-free, NCD & government bonds, and loans against shares etc.
- They also offer an ARQ intelligence tool which can be very useful for checking the performance of the stock and the portfolio heath.
- Account Maintenance Charges for first is year is free and then it is ₹20 + GST per month for Non-BSDA Clients.
- They also offer various trading platforms where users can invest in Mutual funds, commodities, currencies, mutual funds, bonds, and IPOs and also access various news and updates, ledgers, contract notes, P&L statements.
- It also offers the facility of transferring funds & securities whenever from anywhere anytime.
2. Sharekhan
Another leading full-service broker in India who has over 2 million customers and INR 46,000 crores worth of assets under their management.
Sharekhan: Key Features
- By using Sharekhan traders will get services such as smart search facility, investment pattern finder & alert tools which can be useful to filter and identify the potential stocks.
- Apart from that they also offer various value-added services such as portfolio management, loan against shares and investment facility in mutual funds etc.
- Opening a new trading and Demat accounts are free and users also don’t have to pay any annual maintenance charge for maintaining their trading account.
- They also offer various trading platforms where users can easily use their services to invest in various stock markets.
3. ICICI Direct
ICICI Direct is one of the best full-service broker service offered by ICICI Bank. They offer various banking products along with their stock broking facilities.
ICICI Direct: Key Features
- By using the ICICI Direct, users can access their loans, insurance, eLocker, NPS, IPO, mutual fund investment as well as the investment advisory and wealth management services offered by ICICI Bank.
- ICICI Direct offers 3 types of full-service brokerage plans such as iSecure Plan, Prepaid Brokerage Plan, ICICI Direct Plan.
- Users will be charged a variable percentage of the fee as a brokerage fee based on quarterly turnover the user-generated.
- The fee for opening a trading and Demat account is free and users don’t have to pay anything to maintain their trading account. Though, they will be charged 700 INR as a Demat account annual maintenance charge.
- They also offer their trading platform which offers features like trend scanner and heat maps, which can help analyze the markets and spot stocks.
4. Axis Direct
Just like the ICICI Direct is for ICICI Bank, the Axis Direct is an online trading & investment brand offered by Axis Bank. They offer various value-added services like portfolio tracker & management, along with the advisory services for mutual funds and stock, IPO, ETF, general insurance, tax planning and so on.
Axis Direct: Key Features
- Demat Account opening fee is Nil and for fixed brokerage plan it is 499 INR only.
- They also offer a dedicated trading platform which offers features like multiple customized watch lists, streaming live quotes, market watch, open positions checking facility, pending order status viewer and so on.
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5. HDFC Securities
HDFC Securities is another best full-service brokerage service, which is offered by one of the leading banks of the country. It offers a 3-in-1, 2-in-1 and 1-in-1 trading account for all types of traders and investors.
HDFC Securities: Key Features
- The various value-added services they provide as their full-service brokerage are research advisory, loans such as auto, home, personal & education, bonds, gold, ETF, insurance and NPS investments and so on.
- Users can also invest in the US stock market by using their services.
- No fees are being charged for opening a trading account in HDFC Securities but they charge 1999 INR for using their trading software which is Pro Terminal.
- The annual maintenance charge for trading and Demat account is 750 INR in HDFC Securities.
- Clients need to pay an extra fee of 250 INR for activating currency derivatives in their trading account.
6. SBI Securities
SBI Securities provide one of the best full-service broker services, which are offered by the leading bank of the country State Bank of India. Their full-service brokerage service offers a 3-in-1 demat account.
SBI Securities: Key Features
- Along with the trading account, they also offer various value-added services such as research advisory, trade calls, loans against securities, home & auto loans.
- SBI Securities also offers the facility to invest in NCDs, IPO, OFS, mutual funds and so on.
- Users need to pay 850 INR + extra service charges for opening their trading account with SBI Securities.
- Upon opening the trading account users will be not be charged any type of annual maintenance charge in their first year. From the second year onwards they need to pay 350 INR as an annual maintenance charge of their trading account.
- Apart from all the services mentioned above they also offer their trading platform where users can trade online and place orders, mark funds, create a market watch, trade and manage funds etc.
- The trading platforms are available for all devices so it can be accessed anytime from anywhere.
7. Motilal Oswal
On the 8th of our list, it is Motilal Oswal, one of the leading full-service brokerage service providers. They offer a repository of over 30,000, which covers markets, economy and over 230 stocks across 21 industries.
Motilal Oswal: Key Features
- They offer various value-added services such as the facility to invest in gold ETFs, fixed income instruments, bonds, IPO, mutual funds along with the portfolio management services.
- The stock broker charges an admin charge of 199 INR for a year. Motilal Oswal offers zero account opening fees, even though users need to pay Annual Maintenance Fee for their trading account.
- Users will be charged a variable percentage of the fee as a brokerage fee based on quarterly turnover the user-generated.
- They offer their trading platform across various devices which offer the facility of doing trades and exploring numerous research reports, screeners, Trade Guide Signal, Option Writer and Option Decoder etc. from anywhere.
8. Kotak Securities
Just like other banks mentioned above, Kotak Securities is offered by Kotak Mahindra Bank. By using their full-service brokerage services users will get dealer assisted trading and stock lending and borrowing facilities along with the unique investment facilities in IRF such as interest rate futures, ETFs, tax-free bonds IPOs, mutual funds and so on.
Kotak Securities: Key Features
- Kotak Securities includes four types of full-service brokerage plans such as Fixed Brokerage plan, Dynamic Brokerage plan, Advance Brokerage plan and Shubh Trade Brokerage plan.
- In Fixed Brokerage Plan users will be charged a fixed percentage of their generated trading amount, whereas in Dynamic Brokerage plan users will be charged a variable percentage of the fees as a brokerage fee based on quarterly turnover the user-generated.
- In case of the Advanced Brokerage Plan users will be charged as a percentage of the trade value.
- Finally, in the case of Shubh Trading Brokerage plan users need to bring in the cash margin of 1 Lakh INR.
- The trading account opening charge with Kotak Securities cost around 750 INR and upon opening the trading account with the users will get free Demat account and the Annual Maintenance charge for the first year will be 0 INR.
- From the second years onwards users just need to pay 50 INR per month as their Annual Maintenance Charge of their Demat Account.
- They also offer their trading platform for easy investment in various stocks and other facilities such as live-streaming, stock recommendation, customized watch list, charting tools and so on.
9. Religare Broking
Religare Broking Another best full-service brokers of India who provides best in class brokerage services to its users. They offer various value-added services such as research advisory, investment in mutual funds, NPS and so on.
Religare Broking: Key Features
- Users will be charged a variable percentage of the fees as a brokerage fee based on quarterly turnover which is 2.5% max.
- You can also open their trading and Demat account for free. One time account processing fees of 999 INR will be charged from the users.
- They also offer various types of Annual Maintenance Charge as per the brokerage services offered. Usually, the Annual Maintenance Charge is 400 INR, but for the Bandhan and Bima AMC plan, it is 0 INR.
- For Bandhan, AMC plan users need to keep a refundable interest free security deposit of 2500 INR, whereas for BIMA AMC plan users need to pay a non-refundable one-time subscription fee of 1,111 INR.
- They offer their own trading platforms where users can trade very easily while using various premium features such as creating their personalized watch lists can do instant fund transfer and also view real-time charts on the go.
10. Venture Securities
Venture Securities is one of the best full-service brokers in India who offers various value-added services such as investment in IPO, mutual funds, fixed income securities, NPS and other depository services.
Ventura Securities: Key Features
- They charge a variable percentage of the fees as a brokerage fee based on quarterly turnover the user-generate and a flat 20 INR per lot on a single leg of the transaction.
- Venture Securities offers three types of plan for opening Trading and Demat account with them.
- Usually, users can open their trading and Demat Account with Venture Securities at free of cost.
- They also offer their own trading platform where users can trade in various stocks and create a personalized watch list and can also customize the trading window.
- They offer separate mobile apps called Ventura Wealth and Ventura Commodities.
- Users can trade in various equity, equity derivatives, and currency derivatives by using the Ventura Wealth app whereas trade in commodities is only available in Ventura Commodities app.
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11. Edelweiss
On the last of our list, it is Edelweiss who offers various value-added services such as guided portfolio investment services along with the small case, guided portfolios, and portfolio organizer services and so on.
Edelweiss: Key Features
- Users can also invest in various mutual funds, ETFs, gold and insurance products by using their platform.
- They offer two types of full-service brokerage plans such as Edelweiss Lite and Edelweiss Elite.
- For Edelweiss Lite users need to pay 10 INR for each executed order and for using the Edelweiss Elite users will be charged a variable percentage of the fees as a brokerage fee based on quarterly turnover the user-generated.
- Users can always switch between two plans by paying a small amount of service charge for that.
- Finally, Edelweiss also offer their own trading platform where users can trade in various equity, derivatives, and commodity markets by using the stock advisory and trading tips.
- It also has various premium features such as data analytical tools, advanced indicators, multiple watch lists facility and so on.
Full-Service Brokers in India
So now you have it! This was all about the Top 10 best Full-Service Brokers in India plus a onus addition to the list. You need to remember that all of them have some pros and cons but all of them offers few features which make them unique and stand out in the crowd.
You should choose the best full-service broker after analyzing your investment needs, existing financial relationships, brokerage charges by the service provider, trading facilities and so on. Are you fond of full-service brokers? Or, there’s a simpler, more convenient, and cheaper alternative i.e. discount brokers in India. Do have a look their services as well offered at a discounted price model.