New record on Dalal Street: Demat accounts cross 10 crore mark

As new retail investors continue to have faith in the stock market, the number of Demat accounts in India has crossed the milestone of 10 crore mark in August.

“While we have witnessed a substantial increase in Demat accounts in the last two years, it is equally important to note that NSDL’s custody value increased from Rs 174 lakh crore in April 2020 to Rs 320 lakh crore ($4 trillion) in August 2022, indicating participation from both retail and institutional investors,” said Prashant Vagal, Executive Vice President, NSDL.

NSDL and CDSL are the two depository participants in India. CDSL had last month said as the largest depository, it services 7 crore active Demat accounts in India.

Discount broking platform Zerodha, the largest broking house in India, had also recently announced that it had crossed the one crore customer mark.

Demat account surpassing the 10 crore mark for the first time shows that the culture in equity investing is slowly but steadily picking up in India, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, which were under-served till now, said B Gopkumar, MD & CEO of Axis Securities.

He said that higher participation of investors bodes well for the depth and development of equity markets in India, with the availability of equity capital to companies through primary issuances.

Naveen Chandramohan, Founder and Fund Manager of ITUS Capital, said there is no doubt that financialization in our country is here to stay.

“Whether you look at the registrations on BSE, or Zerodha crossing 1cr accounts or the SIP volume growth over the last two years on a MoM basis, the trends point to a strong financialization growth in our country.

It's imperative to understand that the quality of growth will be a lot more robust if the number of mutual fund distributors and registered investment advisors increases alongside,” he said.