Stock Market · Introduction to Stock Markets

Market participants

The Indian stock market isn't just retail traders on their phones. Four types of players move markets, and they all behave differently.

Retail investors, that's you. Individual traders and investors. Small money per person, but 13 crore demat accounts add up. Retail sentiment can spike small-cap stocks and cause panic-selling cascades.

FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors), foreign funds, hedge funds, and pension funds investing in India. When FIIs buy, markets go up. When they sell (FII outflows), markets can crater. NSE and SEBI publish FII buy/sell data every day. Watch it.

DIIs (Domestic Institutional Investors), Indian institutions: mutual funds, insurance companies, banks. Your SIP money goes into a mutual fund, that fund is a DII. When FIIs sell in panic, DIIs often absorb the selling. LIC alone holds ₹14+ lakh crore in equities.

Prop desks (proprietary trading), brokerages trading their own capital, not clients' money. Algorithm-driven, faster than any human. When you trade intraday, you're competing with these desks.

> FIIs can move markets by themselves. A single US Fed rate hike can trigger ₹50,000 crore of FII selling from India in a week.

Why this matters

Understanding who's trading tells you why prices move. FII outflows explain the 2022 crash. DII buying explains why markets held up. Retail FOMO explains why bad companies sometimes rally 40% on no news.

₹15L cr+LIC's equity portfolio in India

20 cr+Active demat accounts. The count crossed 20 crore in 2025 and is still climbing

Takeaway. FIIs, DIIs, and prop desks move more money than all retail combined. Watch FII flows daily.