Shareholding pattern API: NSE and BSE data as JSON

A shareholding pattern API returns the quarterly ownership split that every listed Indian company files with NSE and BSE, as structured data rather than a table on an exchange page. The disclosure itself is public and free. What an API adds is identity resolution across exchanges, history you can query as a time series, and a filing date attached to every figure so staleness travels with the data into your systems.

What the underlying disclosure contains

The shareholding pattern is a quarterly filing made under the SEBI listing framework. It reports holding by category as of the quarter-end date: promoter and promoter group, public shareholders broken into institutional and non-institutional buckets, shares held by custodians against depository receipts, and the named holders above the disclosure threshold. Pledged and encumbered promoter shares are reported alongside.

That structure is why the dataset is more than one number per stock. Promoter holding, foreign holding and domestic institutional holding each come from a different row of the same filing, and the named-holder section is where you find specific institutions rather than category totals. For how the filing reads on the page, see how to read a shareholding pattern.

The engineering problems an API should have solved

Anyone who has tried to build this pipeline in house recognises the list:

• Cross-exchange identity. The same company files with both exchanges under different tickers, and names are written inconsistently. A stable join key, with ISIN as the anchor, is the difference between a time series and a pile of rows. See CUSIP vs ISIN if you are combining India and US data in one schema.
• Ticker changes and corporate actions. Renames, mergers and demergers break naive ticker-keyed history. So do stock splits and bonus issues when you compare share counts rather than percentages.
• Category definitions. Promoter reclassification moves holding between promoter and public without a single share trading. See what is promoter reclassification.
• Holder-name normalisation. In the named-holder section, one institution appears under many spellings. Without normalisation, a query for a fund's positions across companies returns a fraction of them.
• Revisions. Companies do refile. Keeping the revision and the original, both dated, is what makes a figure auditable later.
• BSE-only and NSE-only listings. Coverage that assumes every company is on both exchanges quietly loses the ones that are not.

What quarterly data cannot tell you

The single biggest misuse is treating a quarterly percentage as a current one. Promoter holding from the March quarter is a March position. Between quarterly filings, ownership changes surface through event-driven disclosures instead:

• SAST disclosures when acquirers cross the prescribed thresholds
• Insider-trading disclosures for promoter and designated-person dealing
• Bulk and block deals reported by the exchanges on the trade date

A pipeline that reads only the quarterly file will always be the last to know. One that reads the quarterly file for levels and the event disclosures for changes is complete.

What Flock's API exposes

Flock's Business plan is a REST API over normalised India and US disclosure data at ₹39,999 per month, ₹3,49,999 annually, including 100,000 requests per month and a published SLA of 99.5 percent. The endpoints most relevant to shareholding work:

Keys are bearer tokens, scoped per endpoint group, in sk_test_ and sk_live_ form, with a published OpenAPI spec. Every holding row carries its source and filing date, which is the point: your own code can decide what is too old to use. Access begins with a conversation on the business page rather than a self-serve signup, and invoices currently carry no GSTIN because Flock is not GST-registered.

If you want the browsing version of the same data rather than the API, see shareholding pattern tracker and promoter holding tracker.

Flock reads primary filings and stamps every data point with its source and date. A shareholding pattern API gives you what companies disclosed, dated. What that means for you is your call to make. This is not investment advice.