Retail investors continue to flock to the stock markets, shows data

The penetration has improved substantially with total demat accounts tally jumping 44 per cent from 43 million a year ago

Individual investors are coming to the stock markets in droves. The Central Depository Services India (CDSL) has opened average 1.8 million demat accounts a month this year, three times more than average 573,793 accounts opened a month in the first half of last year.

The number of active demat accounts across investors types with CDSL crossed the 40-million mark for the first time last week. The National Securities Depository (NSDL) handles another 22.5 million demat accounts. This takes the demat account tally in India past 62 million — still less than 5 per cent of its population.

The penetration, however, has improved