The Rs 1.6 lakh crore trader: How a Gurgaon-based high-frequency firm quietly dominated India’s intraday market in 2025

The growing footprint of such firms has fuelled concerns among smaller retail traders

A Gurgaon-based high-frequency trading (HFT) firm has quietly emerged as one of the most dominant players in India’s intraday cash market. Graviton Research executed at least 1,900 intraday trades worth Rs 1.6 lakh crore during 2025, data analysed by Moneycontrol from NSE bulk deals showed, highlighting the scale at which the firm has grown while remaining largely under the public radar.

The average trade size was around Rs 85 crore, with 458 of the 1,900 bulk deals exceeding Rs 100 crore. The actual trading volumes are likely higher, as the analysis only includes transactions disclosed under stock exchange bulk deal reporting. Under exchange rules, trades are classified as bulk deals when more than 0.5 percent of a listed company’s equity changes hands in a single trading session.

Graviton’s growing stature is reflected in its market share. NSE recorded around 17,500 bulk deals during the year, implying that the firm alone accounted for over 10 percent of all such transactions. In value terms, total bulk deals on the exchange were Rs 6.8 lakh crore, giving Graviton a striking 24 percent share of the total value. The numbers are significant in an ecosystem that includes more than 12,000 large foreign funds and thousands of wealthy proprietary traders that transact in large blocks of shares.

The firm has largely concentrated on mid- and small-cap stocks, with only a limited presence in large-cap names. Market participants say this approach has mixed consequences. While large cash-market trades in smaller stocks improve liquidity, they also heighten volatility, increasing impact costs for other investors.

Further analysis of the data highlights two additional trends: success rate and profitability. In the 458 trades above Rs 100 crore, Graviton made profits in a little over 90 percent of the transactions. In contrast, retail investors typically post success rates of 30–50 percent. Despite the high hit rate, the spreads captured by the firm were thin. Profits from these large trades totalled just Rs 24 crore, the data showed. Market participants said actual profits could be significantly higher if the firm is also active in India’s futures and options (F&O) market.

The firm’s rise has drawn attention amid regulatory developments. Income Tax authorities raided Graviton’s offices in October. According to media reports, the firm said it was fully compliant with all applicable rules and regulations. The reports also said Graviton recorded a 67 percent jump in profit during FY25, with net profit touching Rs 1,010 crore.

Moneycontrol had reported on September 9 that Graviton was among 10 market traders scrutinised by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), along with US trading firm Jane Street. However, Sebi has not launched any formal investigation so far.

Founded in 2014 by Ankit Gupta and Nishil Gupta, both engineers with an IIT background, Graviton is a privately funded research trading firm. It describes itself as a “proprietary quantitative trading firm”, meaning it deploys its own capital for trading.

Moneycontrol could not ascertain whether the firm also trades client money. Market insiders said the firm uses advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence tools to predict market movements with greater precision.

The growing footprint of such firms has fuelled concerns among smaller retail traders. In many intraday and derivative trades, the counterparty to retail investors is often a foreign or domestic HFT deploying algo- and AI-driven strategies. Frequently, these HFTs generate profits at the expense of retail participants. Sebi’s data from 2024 showed that over 90 percent of retail trades in the F&O market resulted in losses, implying gains for counterparties.

Graviton’s stock selection further underlines its strategy. The firm has largely focused on small- and mid-cap companies, where price movements tend to be sharper. The data points to a correlation between Graviton’s trades and stock-specific volatility. While its systems appear to identify stocks already experiencing heightened movement, the size of its intraday trades may also add to both liquidity and volatility. On days when Graviton executed large intraday trades, the average stock movement was 5.1 percent. In 160 of the 458 large bulk deals, the stock price either surged or fell by more than 10 percent.

Specific trades illustrate this pattern. On March 11, Graviton bought and sold about 63 lakh shares of IndusInd Bank worth over Rs 400 crore, earning a profit of Rs 15 lakh. The stock fell 27 percent during the session after the bank disclosed discrepancies in its derivatives portfolio. On January 9, the firm traded 3.8 lakh shares of Naveen Fluorine International to make a profit of Rs 5.2 crore, as the stock rose 9.5 percent that day. On January 24, Graviton traded shares worth about Rs 11 crore in Cyient Technologies and booked a loss of Rs 9 crore, as the stock declined 24 percent following the resignation of its chief executive officer.

Netweb Technologies emerged as the most traded stock for the firm, with at least 24 intraday purchases during the year. Aegis Logistics, CreditAccess Grameen and Jupiter Wagons were among other counters where Graviton traded frequently, the data showed. An email sent the company and its founders remained unanswered until the time of publishing this article.