MUMBAI, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Indian retail investor participation in the country's stock market rose with an average of 2.6 million new accounts opened every month in the financial year of April 2021-March 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday.
"From an average of 400,000 new demat accounts (retail investor accounts in digital form) opened every month in 2019-20, it tripled to 1.2 million per month in 2020-21 and has further increased to around 2.6 million per month in 2021-22," the minister said in an address at the silver jubilee celebration of India's largest depository, National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), in Mumbai.
"Indian retail investors have played a key role, especially during the last two years. They have shown the world what they can do by standing up and becoming shock absorbers unlike FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors)," the finance minister said.
According to India's economic survey released in February, the share of retail investors in the cash turnover of the national stock exchange (NSE) surged to 45 percent in 2020-21 and was showing a similar trend in the first seven months of 2021-22.
Individual investors currently account for 44.7 percent of the equity cash segment compared to 36 percent in 2016-17. ■