National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) is India's largest depository, holding demat accounts, custody value and issuer services, with a payments bank and database management arm alongside. The upcoming quarter will speak to whether operating margins recover as technology spending and hiring taper, and how the Rs. 28.68 Cr GST show-cause notice and the post-peak Payments Bank revenue base shape reported numbers.
| Results date | October 31, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Quarter | Q2 FY 2026-2027 |
| Previous quarter revenue | Rs. 182.2 Cr (standalone revenue from operations, Q1 FY27) |
| Previous quarter PAT | Rs. 89.1 Cr (standalone, Q1 FY27) |
| Previous quarter EBITDA margin | 57.8% (standalone EBITDA margin, Q1 FY27) |
| Market cap | Rs. 13,996 Cr |
| CMP | Rs. 699.8 |
The board will meet on Saturday, October 31, 2026, to approve unaudited standalone and consolidated results for the quarter and half year ended September 30, 2026 (Q2/H1 FY27), with Limited Review. The trading window for designated persons closed from October 1, 2026, and reopens 48 hours after the results.
Separately from this board meeting, NSDL's FY26 final dividend of Rs. 4 per share (200% on the Rs. 2 face value) had a record date of September 11, 2026, with payment on or before October 22, 2026. The dividend was declared at the 14th AGM held on September 22, 2026.
The quarter tests whether NSDL's margin compression bottoms out as the guided cost relief arrives, against the toughest seasonal comparison of the year in Q2 FY26 (standalone total income Rs. 250.6 Cr, PAT Rs. 120.4 Cr). Flow proxies stayed strong through July-September 2026: custody value reached Rs. 536.45 lakh crore, H1 FY27 mainboard IPO mobilisation hit a record Rs. 94,205 Cr (+35% YoY), and BSE equity derivatives average daily turnover ran about 23% above FY26's average. The margin question is live because Q1 FY27 standalone operating margin fell to 43.8% from 49.7% a year ago, with total expenses up 26.5% YoY against revenue growth of 13.2%; hiring was largely completed by Q1 with 'much lower' FY27 additions, and capex is guided to decline in FY27 after Rs. 106 Cr of FY26 technology spend. The GST show-cause-cum-demand notice of Rs. 28.68 Cr — about 32.18% of Q1 FY27 standalone PAT — is the swing factor for reported numbers, with the company stating no immediate financial impact and a detailed reply to be filed. Consolidated revenue growth should decelerate sharply after the Q1 spike, as management said the NPBL card-onboarding fees that drove the 65.6% YoY consolidated revenue jump 'peaked in Q1', with future revenue driven by CASA and transactional banking.
Guidance tracking: Management has set out several testable markers for FY27:
Operating metrics to probe
Risk follow-ups: GST notice and fee/regulatory items
Strategic initiative updates
Narrative shifts: new CTO and revenue mix
Management framed the Q1 card-onboarding fees as largely pass-through and low margin, saying they peaked in Q1. Future Payments Bank revenue is expected to be driven by CASA and transactional banking services.
Management attributed the resilience to NDML's diversified business, with SEZ online and insurance repository income offsetting the KRA impact. The regulator cut KYC charges on fetch by 20%.
The issuer fee hike has been raised in analyst calls, with fees unchanged for about 11 years and rising technology costs cited as grounds. Management has said conversations with the regulator are bilateral and nothing has happened on that front.
Pledge income is count-based, not value-based, so while MTF book value grew 68-70%, pledge income grew only 5-7% because counts stayed steady. Pledge and unpledge counts rose 15% YoY in Q1 FY27.
Management guided that capex will decline in FY27 after Rs. 106 Cr of technology spend in FY26, with the spend journey running another 1 to 1.5 years from its start. Hiring was largely completed by Q1 FY27, with much lower employee additions expected in FY27.