Mumbai: Domestic broking house Kotak Securities is witnessing traction in the smaller towns as the country heads towards financial inclusion.

The broking house has seen 150% rise in the cash market volumes coming from smaller towns while in the derivatives segment the contribution has grown 515% in the last one year, official data showed.

The development assumes significance since most of the equity market volumes in the country are driven from metropolitan centers with Mumbai alone contributing to over a third of the overall market volumes. The total number of demat accounts for Kotak Securities coming from smaller towns has increased to 27,841 currently from 21,280 in the last fiscal and 13,997 in FY17. The broking house offers free intra-day trading for smaller towns which accounts for 70% of the volume coming from these towns.

“India is still a very under penetrated in terms of equity markets.

The next phase of growth will come from the smaller towns where there is no culture of equity investments,” said Kamlesh Rao, managing director, Kotak Securities speaking at media conference. The brokerage also offers direct mutual fund participation for its clients by paying fees of Rs 999 per annum and is planning to turn this product free of cost for investors eventually.