3 weeks ago

Zerodha's Nithin Kamath: CAS isn't the problem, shallow markets are

Zerodha's Nithin Kamath: CAS isn't the problem, shallow markets are
CAS isn’t the problem—‘our markets being shallow is a complicated problem’, says Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath · financialexpress.com

At the end of every trading day, the stock market picks a final price for each stock.

In India, they recently changed how that final price is chosen using something called CAS.

After this change, stock prices started swinging around more at the end of the day, and some people blamed CAS.

A man named Nithin Kamath, who runs a big trading company called Zerodha, says CAS isn't really the problem.

He says the real problem is that India's market is 'shallow'—meaning not enough people and companies are actively buying and selling.

There are over 130 million registered investors, but only a few million trade on any normal day.

When there aren't enough traders, big buy or sell orders can move prices a lot.

He also says it's hard to borrow shares to bet against stocks, and some taxes make trading more expensive.

He thinks the fix is to make it easier and cheaper for many different kinds of traders to take part.

Until then, he says, the big price swings at the close will keep happening.

Key facts

Speaker
Nithin Kamath, founder of Zerodha
Platform
LinkedIn post
Topic
Closing Auction Session (CAS) and closing-price volatility
Registered investors in India
Over 13 crore
Active daily traders
About 20-30 lakh
Previous closing price method
Volume-weighted average of the final 30 minutes
Related regulatory changes
April 2026 STT change; RBI norms limiting banks' capital-market exposure
Recommended fixes
Easier shorting and securities lending, fewer cost distortions, genuine market makers

Quotes

Nithin Kamath

Founder of Zerodha, India’s largest retail broker

“"There might be tweaks required in how CAS itself works. But the larger issue of our markets being shallow is a complicated problem to solve."”
financialexpress.com
“"CAS is not the reason for these structural limitations, but it makes them more apparent."”
financialexpress.com

Sources

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