Actually, there is no restriction on the number of shares that you can hold in your portfolio. After all, you can also buy one share in demat form. The basic question you need to ask is to fold. Firstly, can I monitor such a large portfolio? Secondly, is the portfolio size helping me to diversify my risk adequately? We all understand that a share in market parlance is part ownership in a company. So if a company has issued 100 shares and you own 1 share then you own 1% stake in the company. The big question is not only about how to invest in shares but how much to invest in the share market and also how many shares to invest in? Normally diversification works when you buy 15-20 stocks with less than perfect correlation. Beyond that point you only get risk substitution and not risk reduction. Also a portfolio of 50 stocks is too much to monitor. You need to monitor stocks on the basis of financials, news flows etc. Hence a compact portfolio works better.