India witnessing 30 mn new demat accounts annually, 1 in 4 now a women investor

New Delhi, Dec 23 India is seeing at least 30 million new demat accounts being opened every year since 2021, and nearly every one in four is now a women investor, indicating an increasing prevalence of using capital market as a channel of financialisation of savings, SBI Research said on Monday.

The report from the State Bank of India’s Economic Research Department stated that owing to this, the total demat accounts in the country crossed 150 million (of which 92 million are unique investors on NSE) in FY24 as compared to a paltry 22 million in FY14.

“This year, the number of new demat accounts may cross the 40 million mark,” said Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser, SBI, adding that apart from a few states, the participation of women increased more than national average in FY25 as compared to FY22.

Delhi (29.8 per cent), Maharashtra (27.7 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (27.5 per cent) exhibit higher female representation than the pan-India average of 23.9 per cent in FY25, while states such as Bihar (15.4 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (18.2 per cent) and Odisha (19.4 per cent) had sub-20 per cent female share in their respective registered investor bases, the findings showed.

Declining mean/median age and increasing share of less than 30-year age individuals reflects the influx of relatively younger investors in the markets over the last few years, driven by technological advancements, lower trading costs and increased access to information.

According to the report, 1 per cent rise in market capitalisation leads to 0.06 per cent rise in GDP growth rate.

The increasing share of mutual funds in financial savings has made them the most preferred instrument for financialisation of savings. The new SIP registered increased fourfold since FY18 to 4.8 crore, leading to total SIP contribution of around Rs 2 lakh crore.

In the last 10 years, funds mobilised by Indian companies from capital markets has increased more than 10-fold, from Rs 12,068 crore in FY14 to Rs 1.21 lakh crore in FY25 (till October).

“The savings of households in ‘Shares and debentures’ has increased to 1 per cent of GDP in FY24, from 0.2 per cent in FY14 and the share in household financial savings has increased from 1 per cent to 5 per cent”, the report mentioned.

Meanwhile, in FY25 (till October), a total of Rs 1.21 lakh crore of capital was raised from equity markets from 302 issues.

“The NSE market capitalisation has increased by more than 6x to Rs 441 lakh crore in FY25 (so far) as compared to FY14.

“Owing to this, the average trade size in the equity cash segment has increased from Rs 19,460 in FY14 to Rs 30,742 in FY25 (so far),” the SBI Research report mentioned.

—IANS

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