On August 8, 2024, the number of unique registered investors on the National Stock Exchange of India crossed the 10 crore (100 million) mark.
The total number of client codes (accounts) registered in the exchange is 19 crores (including the total client registrations done so far, a client can register more than one trading member). NSE registered investor base crosses 10 crore (100 million) unique investors (unique PANs) and 19 crore (190 million) total accounts.
The registration of investors at NSE has witnessed a rapid trend in the past few years. The number of registered investors crossed the 1 crore mark within 14 years of operations, the next 1 crore investors took about seven years to add, the next one crore investors took about three and a half years and the next one crore took a little over a year.
In other words, it took more than 25 years for the number of registered investors to cross the 4 crore mark in March 2021. Subsequent additions of 1 crore (4 crore to 10 crore) have been seen at a faster pace taking about 6-7 months on average and the last one crore added in just five months.
Daily new unique investor registrations have averaged between 50,000 and 78,000 during this period. The number of investors has seen a jump of more than 3 times in the last five years due to rapid growth in digitization, increasing investor awareness, financial inclusion and continued market performance. So far this financial year (till July 31, 2024), the benchmark Nifty 50 index has returned 11.8 percent, while the Nifty 500 index has seen a robust 16.2 percent gain over the same period. Annualized returns for the Nifty 50 and Nifty 500 over the last five-year period ending July 2024 have been 17.5 percent and 21.1 percent, respectively.
The average age of the 10 crore registered borrowers in India today is about 32 years, with 40 percent below the age of 30. Just five years ago the median age was 38, reflecting the growing interest in the markets among young people. About one in five investors today are women.
Of the last one crore registrations, about 42 percent are from North India, followed by West India (25 percent), South India (18 percent) and East India (14 percent). Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra led the way in registration of new investors and both accounted for more than one-fourth of the investors. The increase was seen in all states, with at least one person investing directly in the market in all but 30 zip codes.
Over 46.5 percent of all new investor registrations in the last five months came from districts outside the top 100 districts (by number of new registrations in the period). Currently, Maharashtra has the highest number of registered unique investors with 1.7 crore (17 million) investors, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 1.1 crore (11 million) investors and Gujarat with 87 lakh (8.7 million) investors.
Indirect participation also increased meaningfully during this period. Around 2.1 crore (21 million) new SIP accounts have been opened between March and June this year and the average monthly SIP inflow is Rs. 20,452 crore (Rs. 205 billion) as against Rs. 17,613 crore (Rs 176 billion) was the inflow.
Mr. Sriram Krishnan, Chief Development Officer, NSE said, “We have reached another significant milestone in our investor base this year. After achieving the 9 crore mark in late February, the number of investors onboarded on the exchange has admirably increased by another one crore in just five months. This growth can be attributed to several key factors,
These include a streamlined Know Your Customer (KYC) process, higher financial literacy facilitated by stakeholder-led investor awareness programs and sustained positive market sentiment. Increased participation in various exchange-traded financial instruments such as equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs), government bonds and corporate bonds have contributed to these factors.”
