Mumbai, Jan 10: India’s demat accounts witnessed a record 185.3 million in the year 2024, wherein equity benchmarks outperformed global peers. This witnessed a year-on-year addition of 46 million accounts and adds up to an average addition of 3.8 million accounts per month according to data available with NSDL and CDSL.The growth in demat accounts reflects a 33% increase compared to 2023. The trend, which started during the Covid-19 period, has gained momentum because of an easy account opening process, widespread smartphone adoption, and favorable market returns. Notably, the number of demat accounts has more than quadrupled in five years, climbing from 39.3 million in 2019 to the current record.
According to a fresh report by SBI Research, the growth curve is steady: India has already added 30 million new demat accounts a year since 2021. At least 25% of these new accounts are said to be female investors, so there is still a shift from savings to more financialization, this time by capital markets. Group Chief Economic Adviser, SBI Dr. Soumya Kanti Ghosh believes this number of fresh accounts will top 40 million this year. He said that the participation of women was higher than the national average in many states compared to FY22.
Demat accounts opened have gone up in tandem with the robust fundraising by Indian companies. Funds mobilized through capital markets have jumped from Rs 12,068 crore in FY14 to Rs 1.67 lakh crore in 2024. NSE market capitalization has expanded over six times, at Rs 441 lakh crore in FY25 compared to FY14.
This confirms the robust nature of India’s retail investor base and its growing dependence on equity markets in providing a method for wealth creation along with smart financial services.