Active investor count on NSE cash segment at 10-mth high
MUMBAI : The count of active retail investors participating in trades on India’s largest stock exchange, the NSE, hit a 10-month high of 9.7 million in July, driven by a widespread market rally, with mid and small-cap stocks outperforming the benchmark Nifty. A similar number of investors was last seen in September 2022, according to NSE data. In June, the figure stood at 8.9 million.
Experts attributed this jump to the outperformance of mid and small cap stocks compared to large caps, reflected in Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices. For instance, while the Nifty rose 17% from a low of 16828 on 20 March to close on 31 July at 19753.8, the Nifty Midcap 100 rose 27% to reach 37757, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 rallied 30% to 11702.85. “Higher retail participation is courtesy the rally in broader markets, not just the benchmark Nifty and Sensex," said Gaurav Dua, senior vice president and head of capital market strategy at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.
This tied up with industry-wide new client additions, he added. Number of demat accounts at NSDL and CDSL increased by 2.79 million in June to 123.3 million by July. The number of active retail investors, trading at least once a month in cash segment, has been increasing over the past three months, according to NSE data.
Retail investors jumped on the stock market bandwagon in earnest after the Pandemic-induced lockdown in March 2020. From around 3 million investors in January 2020, the number soared to 12 million in January 2022, exchange data shows. However, from the peak there was a drastic fall to 6.7 million in April this year.
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