Driven by a pandemic-fueled retail (stock market) investing boom, Indian stocks has been among the world’s best performers.
The number of demat accounts rose to 10.8 crore in December 2022, a surge of 34 per cent on yearly basis, on attractive returns from the equity markets, ease of account opening process and increased financial savings.
The resilience of the Indian markets has surprised many analysts in the background of global economic headwinds. Retail investors have supported Indian markets with total demat accounts (both CDSL and NSDL) in the country crossing the 10 crore mark.
While Maharashtra, Gujarat and UP has over 1 Crore demat accounts, when it comes to North East, the number of registered demat accounts is very low.
Assam has 23 Lakh demat accounts. Nagaland has just about 35000 demat accounts. However, It is not clear how many of these accounts are active in trading or investing.
The growth in demat accounts picked up after the pandemic since markets witnessed high activity. Smaller towns are showing interest in opening demat accounts, analysts said. Most of the traction came through mutual funds, which has shown consistent inflows in monthly SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) contribution.
N S Venkatesh, the CEO of Association of Mutual Funds in India, believes that a lot more needs to be done to spread the word across the country especially in tier II and tier III cities to encourage investments. Despite the rise in demat accounts, the percentage of the total population investing in financial instruments is still a paltry 8%. A lot needs to be done to ensure more people can reap the benefits of India’s growth story. (Various Sources)
In Nagaland, interested persons wishing to open demat account and invest in the stock market and mutual funds can contact the following office:
Religare Broking branch office
WestNet Professionals LLP
WestCity building, 3rd floor, DC court junction
Duncan Basti, Dimapur
+91 78383 79575
amar@westnet.co.in