The margin trading book didn't just grow; it expanded aggressively. As of September 30, the total MTF size stood at ₹1.51 lakh crore, a 3.6% month-on-month jump from ₹1.45 lakh crore, according to NSE data. That’s leverage stacking up fast. Concentration risk remains low, with top 10 stocks holding just 12.1% of the total book, barely up from 11.9% in August. The base is broad, but the spikes are sharp.
HDFC Bank remains the heavyweight, topping the list with ₹3,282.40 crore in exposure, though that figure actually dropped ₹368 crore from August. BSE, the latest Nifty 50 inductee, sat second at ₹3,200.30 crore, showing near-zero change. Reliance Industries, Jio Financial Services, and Infosys rounded out the top five. The majors are stable; the volatility is happening elsewhere.
PB Fintech is the outlier. Its MTF positions jumped from ₹38.7 crore to ₹254.2 crore in a single month—a 556% surge. Granules India followed with a five-fold increase to ₹618.1 crore. Clean Max, KEI Industries, and Quality Power all more than tripled their exposure. These aren't blue-chip drifts; they're speculative piling into mid-caps with momentum.
The unwind was equally dramatic. HFCL’s exposure collapsed from ₹509.5 crore to just ₹1.1 crore, a 98% drop. GE Shipping shed 60% of its MTF book, and Coal India saw a 31% decline to ₹298 crore. Money is rotating out of legacy names and into new listings and high-beta plays. 81 new stocks entered the MTF book in September, including Technocraft Ventures and Indo-MIM, signaling fresh retail appetite for newly listed names.
Watch the October data closely. If PB Fintech and Granules India continue this trajectory, the MTF book could push past ₹1.6 lakh crore. But with HFCL and Coal India bleeding leverage, the risk-reward is bifurcating. Traders are either doubling down on momentum or exiting legacy positions entirely. There’s no middle ground in this book right now.