1.77 million new Demat accounts added in Oct, second-lowest this year

About 1.77 million new dematerialised accounts were added in October — 28 per cent below the previous nine-month average of 2.5 million. The drop in pace comes even as the markets jumped 5.4 per cent last month amid positive foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows.

Not just the demat account tally fell in October, trading activity too softened. The average daily trading volume (ADTV) for the cash segment fell to ~54,532 crore (NSE and BSE combined), a fall of nearly 20 per cent month-on-month (MoM). The ADTV for the futures and options (F&O) segment (both NSE and BSE combined) stood at ~147.4