The National Stock Exchange (NSE), India’s largest stock exchange in terms of equity turnover, witnessed a six per cent increase in the number of active clients in 2015.
While the bulk of the rise in participation has been from the western region, cities such as Bengaluru and Rajkot registered a significant growth in investor participation, which, in turn, led to a 9 per cent growth in the average daily turnover in the retail segment.
The exchange attributes the trend to the number of educational and investment awareness programmes conducted across the country. In 2015, for instance, NSE arranged 1500 investor connect programmes.
The number of active clients in 2015 was pegged at approximately 46 lakh in the cash market segment with such investors having traded at least once on the exchange.
According to the exchange, Gujarat tops the chart with the highest increase in active clients on a year-on-year basis in percentage terms. For instance, Rajkot recorded a 40 per cent increase in the investor numbers.
“We have constantly reached out to people across India, with an aim to bring more people into the formal financial system. Our attempts will also ensure faster financial inclusions,” said Ravi Varanasi, chief, business development, NSE.
In terms of absolute numbers, Maharashtra has the highest number of active clients, followed by Gujarat, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Investor participation has always been a matter of concern in the Indian equity market with less than 2 crore demat accounts for a population of 125 crore. The number of active demat accounts would be even fewer. Interestingly, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) regularly releases data on the city-wise distribution of turnover in the cash segment of both the major equity exchanges – NSE and BSE.
According to Sebi, Mumbai accounted for 56.9 per cent and 59.2 per cent of the total turnover in 2014-15 on BSE and NSE, respectively. The other cities contributing at least three per cent or more to the total turnover are Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Rajkot, and Hyderabad. The share of the cities beyond the top 20 was pegged at 18.1 per cent on the BSE and 9.2 per cent on the NSE in 2014-15, as per Sebi.
In terms of volume, NSE recorded a 9 per cent growth in the average daily turnover in the retail segment in 2015. The overall (retail and others) average daily turnover in the cash segment was Rs 17,560 crore in 2015, as against Rs 15,879 crore a year back. A majority of this volume has come from the retail segment, according to NSE. Among the prominent cities and metros, Bengaluru recorded an approximately 50 per cent hike in trade value in 2015.
