NSDL took 5 sessions to hit mcap that CDSL took 7 yrs to reach!

There’s a new Fast & Furious franchise in town — and it’s playing out on Dalal Street. The speed demon is none other than the National Securities Depository (NSDL). Since its public debut on August 6, the depositary’s market capitalisation has raced from ₹18,720 crore to ₹25,776 crore, adding over ₹7,056 crore in just five trading sessions. The stock has roared ahead 61% from its IPO price of ₹800 and 46.36% from its listing price of ₹880 to ₹1,288 in five sessions. On August 11, the shares hit a new intraday peak of ₹1,425 before cooling off.

Meanwhile, its rival, the Central Depository Services (India) Limited (CDSL), is seeing a small dip in its share price of 0.66%, bringing it to ₹1,554.50, totalling to a market cap of ₹32,490 crore. This means that NSDL’s market capitalisation is just inches away from catching up to CDSL’s, though the latter had an eight-year head start. As per Capitaline data, it is interesting to note that CDSL took 1735 trading sessions to reach the NSDL’s current market cap value, which equals 7 years. 

Even when the two major depositories are at loggerheads, there is a stark difference in their IPO performance and also their growth playbooks. CDSL, which went public in 2017, had an issue size of ₹523 crore, which, if calculated in today’s terms, would be between ₹753 crore to 804 crore, which is still a fraction of NSDL’s issue size of ₹4,011 crore. But when the oversubscription numbers are compared, CDSL’s 119 times overshadows NSDL’s 41 times, showcasing higher investor demand. 

What seems to be a fight between David and Goliath of the depository world, both lead in their own ways. NSDL holds ₹510 lakh crore in terms of assets under custody (AUC), which is six times more than CDSL’s ₹79 lakh crore. NSDL also leads in demat custody quantity with 5.02 lakh crore securities, as compared to CDSL’s 0.88 lakh crore. But CDSL overshadows NSDL in the number of demat accounts, with 15.86 crore accounts vs NSDL’s 4.1 crore accounts. 

NSDL announced its Q1FY2026 results today, reporting a 15.16% year-on-year (YoY) rise to ₹89.62 crore from ₹77.82 crore in the same quarter last year. Its EBITDA stood at ₹115 crore, witnessing a steep rise of 27% over ₹91 crore, while revenue from operations declined 7.49% to ₹312.02 crore from ₹337.29 crore a year earlier. Meanwhile, CDSL’s quarterly performance for the fiscal year has not been positive. Its net profit fell 23.6% year-on-year (YoY) to ₹102.4 crore, and EBITDA slipped more than 15%. Even its margins came down to 50.4% from last year’s 60%, which was attributed to operational costs. 

For investors, the next few sessions could determine who will win the race on the D-Street, for NSDL could overtake CDSL’s market capitalisation, though CDSL’s deep retail reach could just be the booster needed to maintain the lead.