21 October 2009
Depository Participant is just like a Banker holding your shares and executing instructions, accepting share deposits in Electronic form for a fee. He only provides you an intermediate plateform to interact with actual electronic holding i.e. NSDL / CDSL. Stock broker is the person through whom you trade on Stock Exchange, again for a fee. Both are subject to regulatory clearences from their respective agencies i.e. SEBI and stock exchanges. It is very much possible that a Stock Broker also be a Depository paarticipant, but practically, it would be two differrent corporate entities, may be belonging to same group. Online Trading Plateforms are an exception to this normal rule.