Retail investors’ trading activity in G-secs on RBI Retail Direct platform rises over fivefold in August 2025

Bonds

Retail investors seem to have taken a shine to central government dated securities, popularly called G-secs. This is reflected in their G-Sec trades in the secondary market on the RBI Retail Direct platform, which in August 2025 had jumped to 5.39 times in value over what was recorded in the same period a year earlier.

According to the data from the Reserve Bank of India, retail investors' trading activity in the secondary market for G-secs stood at Rs 4,267.55 crore as on August 11, 2025, compared to Rs 668.36 crore as on August 12, 2024.

This significant uptick was driven by growing familiarity with the RBI Retail Direct platform and a favourable duration opportunity in the G-sec market, as investors anticipated potential future rate cuts, said Mataprasad Pandey, vice-president, Arete Capital Service.

With government securities offering more attractive returns relative to traditional fixed-income instruments, retail investors have increasingly turned to the secondary G-sec market, fuelling this notable growth in activity, Pandey added.

The RBI Retail Direct scheme helps individuals to invest in government securities through a direct platform.

Bond yields have been on the rise over the last few trading sessions due to worries of higher government borrowing and lower revenue following the proposed overhaul of the goods and services tax regime, which will likely bring down collections.

The 10-year benchmark bond was trading near four-months high after these worries. Currently, the 10-year benchmark bond yield is trading at 6.4987 percent.

Apart from this, in the primary market, total investments by retail investors on RBI Retail Direct was up 37.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 7,011.26 crore as on August 11, 2025, versus Rs 5,108.16 crore as on August 12, 2024.

Of the total primary market subscription, the majority is Rs 3501.55 crore in treasury bills, followed by Rs 662.66 crore in G-secs and Rs 391.70 crore in state government securities.

Further, experts said that allowing retail investors to buy treasury bills through systematic investment plans on the RBI Retail Direct platform is expected to increase the subscription in the primary market on the platform.