In the world of online stockbrokers, two names stand out for their quality of service and Motilal Oswal and Sharekhan are those names. Both these firms offer a plethora of services and products to their clients. In this article, we shall do a detailed comparison of these two firms so that the investors can make an informed decision.
Motilal Oswal
Established in 1987 by Raamdeo Agarwal, Motilal Oswal today is one of the top-performing full-service brokers in India. It is primarily known for its best-in-class trading applications, portfolio management offerings and prompt customer support. This stock broking firm is based out of Mumbai and offers a wide range of financial and investment services.
With a diversified client base, which includes retail customers, mutual funds, foreign institutional investors, financial institutions and corporate clients, it is India’s first broker that offers 100% paperless trading. It also has a dedicated customer service team with a 6-hour query resolution and a customer-centric Risk Management System.
The firm has 30 years of wealth creation and has successfully created and published more than 30,000 research reports on over 260 companies across 21 sectors. They have a customer base of more than 10 lakhs in around 2200 locations and have made more than 70,000 Crore depository assets. Their research reports have bagged extensive coverage in the media and are known to have an excellent research team.
The company’s trading and investing are permitted across different financial instruments that include:
- Wealth and Asset Management
- Retail Broking and Distribution
- Institutional Broking
- Private Equity
- Derivative, Commodity and Currency Trading
- Mutual Funds
- IPO
The firm also offers a wide range of trading platforms to cater to its clients’ diverse needs available on various devices like desktops, tablets and mobile, allowing the investors and the traders to carry out hassle-free trading.
Motilal Oswal Desktop Application
this enables a full-fledged trading experience for traders with unmatched speed, best-in-class features and easy access to research information. This application is convenient for those traders who look for faster trading execution without much hassle.
Motilal Oswal Trading App
An online trading app, that comes in desktop and mobile versions. It is specially designed for advanced traders and offers a variety of advanced trading features and quicker access to insightful market information and tools to high-frequency traders.
Motilal Oswal Smart Watch App
A smartwatch trading app that allows investors to do a host of things like receive instant notifications on all important market updates and quick info on global indices.
Motilal Oswal Trade
A web portal application that is an easy-to-use trading platform for traders and investors who prefer to use browser-based applications.
Sharekhan
Considered among the biggest stock brokers in India, Sharekhan is a full-service stock broking firm that offers its clients a wide range of trade and investment products. It is based out of Mumbai and has come a long way since its inception in the year 2000. It was brought to life by its parent company i.e., S.S. Kantilal Ishwarlal Securities Limited (SSKI). However, later in July 2015, it was sold out to BNP Paribas which spent Rs. 2200 crore on the deal.
This firm is actively present in 28 states, and over 600 cities and features nearly 170 branches and more than 2200 franchise partners. Presently, it has over 14 lakh clients in India and includes individual investors institutions and traders, corporates & NRIs. It is ranked in 3rd position in India and has won several accolades and awards from various entities that exhibit its supremacy in the stockbroking domain.
Their website
Sharekhan.com is considered the smartest and most comprehensive investment portal solely focused on the Indian stock market. It provides a vast range of investment products, news related to the share market, research reports, fundamental and statistical info across equity, mutual funds, IPOs and much more.
The trade facilities offered by the firm are – equity cash and derivatives segments on BSE and NSE, and commodities trading facilities on MCX and NCDEX. It also provides depository services (Demat account) and the option to invest in mutual funds and IPOs. Besides that, its major offerings include – Currency, Advisory services and Portfolio management services.
It also provides basic knowledge related to the stock market through –
Sharekhan Classrooms, an online service that is available to clients where traders and investors are given different stock market ideas at basic, intermediate and advanced levels. Similarly, it offers premium services through its representatives or relationship managers to the clients to help monitor their portfolios carefully.
The firm also invests heavily in technology to provide a smoother and easier stock trading experience to its clients.
Sharekhan Trade Tiger
A terminal-based stock trading application that can be downloaded and installed by investors on their desktops or laptops to trade across various financial segments. It is a hybrid cloud-based application. Hence, traders can choose to generate customized market watchlists and fetch them from different machines just by logging into the system.
Sharekhan Mini
A browser-based trading application by the firm that is primarily meant for traders located in small towns and villages. It even works well on low internet bandwidth.
Sharekhan Mobile Trading Application –
This application provides trading services across various market exchanges, supplies Live reports, news and market trends, and makes it easier to transfer funds from a bank account to a Sharekhan account
Sharekhan Neo
A new step taken by Sharekhan in the field of Robo-advisory that gives automated recommendations without any human intervention.
Motilal Oswal vs Sharekhan
Trading & Demat Account Opening Charges
Brokerage Charges
IPO – Initial public offering
Motilal Oswal as a stock broking firm allows its clients to apply for IPO in 2 ways:
1. Online through a Website or Mobile App –
To apply for an IPO online, a customer needs to register for an online IPO product. If the customer is not registered for online IPO, they can choose to visit a local branch and submit an application form. After successful registration, customers can apply for IPOs online on the Motilal Oswal website or using the mobile trading app in just a few clicks.
2. At Motilal Oswal Branches –
The customers can choose to visit any branch and apply for an IPO. While applying offline in the branch, they need to fill out an application form and give certain pieces of information. After which, they receive an acknowledgement slip with a reference number after the application is finished.
Sharekhan offers the facility for applying online IPOs to its customers. The process of applying for Initial Public offers with Sharekhan is completely web-based, very simple and fast. Sharekhan customer doesn’t need to fill the paper forms or sign them to apply for shares offered through IPOs at BSE and NSE. The IPO application process is made up of 3 easy steps:
- Choose the IPO.
- Specify the number of shares to apply.
- Provide the price at which the customers would like to buy the IPO shares.
They provide a 100% online process without any documentation. This is an easy way to transfer money from the investor’s linked bank account to their IPO account.
The refund reflects in customers’ IPO accounts which can easily be transferred back to their bank accounts. Also, they provide online changes or cancellations of IPO applications while the IPO is open. Their order history page provides details of all IPO customers who applied in past.