The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday said the unique registered investor base on the exchange has crossed the ten-crore mark for the first time.

The total number of client codes (accounts) registered with the leading exchange stands at 19 crore, the NSE informed.

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“Following the achievement of the nine-crore mark in late February, it is commendable that the number of investors on-boarded on the exchange has increased by an additional crore within just over five months,” said Sriram Krishnan, Chief Business Development Officer, NSE.

This growth can be attributed to several key factors, including the streamlined Know Your Customer (KYC) process, enhanced financial literacy facilitated by stakeholder-led investor awareness programmes, and enduring positive market sentiment.

“Increased participation in various exchange-traded financial instruments, such as equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs), government bonds, and corporate bonds, underscores these contributing factors,” said Krishnan.

The registered investor base hit the one crore mark 14 years after commencement of operations.

The next one crore addition took about seven years, the subsequent crore investors took about three-and-half years and the next one a little over a year.

In other words, it took over 25 years for the registered investor base to hit the four-crore mark in March 2021.

The subsequent one-crore increments (from four crore to ten crore) have come through at an accelerated pace, taking on an average of about six to seven months, with the last crore added in just over five months.

During this period, daily new unique investor registrations have averaged between 50,000 to 78,000.

The investor base has seen more than a three-time jump in the last five years, facilitated by rapid growth in digitisation, rising investor awareness, financial inclusion, and sustained market performance.

According to the exchange, the benchmark Nifty 50 index has generated a return of 11.8 per cent in this fiscal year (as of July 31).

The Nifty 500 index has delivered a strong 16.2 per cent gain during the same period.

Annualised return over the five-year period ending July has been 17.5 per cent and 21.1 per cent for Nifty 50 and Nifty 500, respectively.