Loan Against Shares: Unlock Your Portfolio in 3 Steps

Loan Against Shares lets you borrow money by pledging stocks you already own as collateral. You keep your investments, get instant cash, and pay interest only on what you use — but your shares can be sold if the market falls too much.

Here's what happened: Mirae Asset Financial Services has launched a fully online Loan Against Shares (LAS) facility for investors holding shares in CDSL demat accounts, removing the old paper-based process entirely.. Borrowers can pledge eligible listed shares as collateral through a website or mobile app and receive a credit line sanctioned against the market value of those holdings.. This follows a broader fintech trend of digitising secured credit products — making LAS accessible to retail investors who previously found the process too complicated or branch-dependent..

What you should do: Check your demat account's total market value — if it exceeds ₹1 lakh in listed shares or equity mutual funds, you likely qualify for a LAS credit line worth 50–80% of that value.. Compare LAS interest rates (typically 10–14% p.a.) against your existing personal loan or credit card rate — switch your high-cost debt to LAS if the spread is more than 4 percentage points.. Understand the margin call trigger before pledging: ask the lender what portfolio-to-loan ratio triggers a top-up demand and keep a 20–25% cash buffer in your savings account as insurance..

Pledging shares for a LAS does NOT count as a sale — so you avoid capital gains tax entirely, and your shares continue earning dividends and benefiting from price appreciation while the loan is active.