NSDL Is Down 37% From Its High. But Look At CDSL

NSDL has fallen around 37% from its 52-week high, and that immediately raises a question: Why is the market treating NSDL and

L so differently when both are basically doing the same job? 📉 Both are India’s depositories. They hold securities electronically and make sure shares can move between investors without physical certificates. But their customer mix is quite different. CDSL has a much larger retail investor base. It had around 15.3 crore demat accounts at the end of FY25, while NSDL has historically had a much stronger presence among institutional and non-individual clients. That difference matters. CDSL benefits heavily from the massive growth in retail demat accounts. NSDL, on the other hand, has a much larger share of assets under custody and a stronger institutional presence. NSDL added a record 59.3 lakh accounts in FY26, while its assets under custody crossed ₹520 lakh crore. So when you compare the two stocks, don't just compare the number of demat accounts. Look at the type of customers, assets under custody, revenue mix and how much the business depends on market activity. And then comes valuation. CDSL was trading around ₹1,289 on September 29, while NSDL was around ₹761. A lower share price doesn't mean a cheaper stock. That's an important lesson. The market doesn't value a stock based on its ₹ price. It values the underlying business, earnings and future growth expectations. So NSDL being down 37% doesn't automatically make it cheap. And CDSL being closer to its highs doesn't automatically make it expensive. The interesting question is: What growth is the market already pricing into each business? 📊 That's where this NSDL vs CDSL comparison becomes much more useful tha