Capital markets add 24 lakh investor accounts in 2016

In 2015, about 16.7 lakh investor accounts were added in total on the NSDL and the CDSL

The country's two depositories - NSDL and CDSL - saw the number of investor accounts rising by 24 lakh in 2016, 44 per cent more than a year ago, reflecting investors' growing confidence in domestic bourses.

In 2015, about 16.7 lakh investor accounts were added in total on the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) and the Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL).

The cumulative number of investor accounts stood at 2.71 crore at the end of December 2016 compared to 2.47 crore in the same period a year ago.

NSDL and CDSL allow investors to deposit securities by opening an account.

The securities such as shares, debentures, bonds of investors are held in electronic form (dematerialised form) at the depositories.

As per latest data with Sebi, total number of investor accounts at NSDL stood at nearly 1.53 crore as on December 31, 2016 against 1.43 crore a year earlier.

CDSL reported 1.18 crore investor accounts at the end of December 2016 -- an addition of about 14 lakh accounts year-on-year.

Together, the total number of demat accounts stood at 2.71 crore, at the end of December, last year -- translating to an addition of 24 lakh accounts from the same period in 2015.

Meanwhile, data showed that the total value of securities in dematerialised form at the depositories stood at more than Rs 126.25 lakh crore at the end of December 2016, a growth of 8 per cent over the same period in 2015.

NSDL registered demat securities worth Rs 112.18 lakh crore while CDSL recorded the value at over Rs 14 lakh crore as on December 31, 2016.