Premier bourse BSE has added 1 crore registered investor accounts to its platform between June 6 and September 21, taking the total to over 8 crore in a span of just 107 days.
On June 6 this year, the exchange had said its registered user base has crossed the 7 crore (70 million) mark, which was an addition of 2 crore registered investor accounts in a little over 12 months (from May 23, 2020).
Commenting on the achievement of crossing the 8 crore registered investor accounts on Tuesday, BSE MD and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan said equity investments, whether directly or through mutual funds, are gaining ground over last one-and-a-half years due to variety of reasons globally, and the domestic market is also following this world trend.
The head of the oldest exchange in Asia also advised investors to be be cautious while entering the market, saying it is important for every investor to be careful and understand in detail the companies, processes and instruments in which they plan to invest or trade.
Recalling the key milestones, he said in February 2008, the exchange had just 1 crore investor accounts, which rose to 2 crore by July 2011.
The BSE took nearly three more years to take this to 3 crore in January 2014, and then surpassed the 4-crore level in August 2018.
It crossed the 5-crore mark in May 2020, the 6-crore level on January 19, 2021, and the 7-crore milestone on June 6, 2021.
It crossed the 8-crore level on September 21, 2021, making this the fastest addition -- just 107 days.
However, the BSE did not specify how many of these investor accounts are active or only for mutual fund investments, as the vast majority of trading volume is on rival bourse NSE.
The BSE benchmark Sensex has also been on a song in recent weeks.
After the pandemic-induced bloodbath in March 2020, the index has rallied more than 110 per cent and is trending above 59,000 points.
The Sensex has moved from 57,000 to 58,000 in three sessions from August 31 to September 3 and crossed the 59,000-mark in eight days on September 16.
The Sensex scaled the 50,000 mark only in January this year.
With this, India is now the world's sixth biggest stock market, overtaking France for the first time in market capitalisation, with the benchmark Sensex surging more than 23.85 per cent or 11,389.83 points so far this year.
On September 16, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies soared to $3.54 trillion, or Rs 260.78 lakh crore.
Standalone and online-only brokerages like Zerodha, Upstoxx, Angel Broking and Sharekhan, and institutional players like ICICI Securities, HDFC Securities and Kotak Securities have also seen a massive jump in their investor accounts.
The most valued markets are US ($51 trillion), China ($12 trillion), Japan ($7.5 trillion), Hong Kong ($6.5 trillion) and Britain ($3.51 trillion).
Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
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