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Tamil Nadu has displaced Gujarat to claim the third spot in new investor registrations for September.
The state added 84,500 new investors, edging past Gujarat’s 80,500, according to the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) Market Pulse. The trend has held for four of the first six months of the current financial year, and a rolling six-month tally as of September shows Tamil Nadu closing in on its western counterpart — once known for its strong equity culture — and reversing a previously wide gap.
The shift is largely due to a sharp drop in new investor registrations in Gujarat, where monthly additions have fallen by more than two-thirds compared with last year. Tamil Nadu’s registrations declined by just 10 per cent over the same period.
Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra continued to lead, adding between 150,000 and 200,000 new investors each during the month, even as Gujarat recorded a second consecutive month of decline.
Despite the slowdown, Gujarat remains the third-largest state in terms of total investors, behind Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Tamil Nadu ranks sixth. The gap between the two states has narrowed since the pandemic: in 2019-20, Gujarat had 74 per cent more registered investors than Tamil Nadu; by September 2025, that difference had shrunk to 54 per cent.
Tamil Nadu is expected to continue expanding and outperform its southern peers, according to Satish Menon, executive director at Geojit Financial Services. He credited the growth to the state’s relative prosperity and steady economic expansion, which have encouraged more people to explore equities over traditional savings options like fixed deposits.
Tamil Nadu is also the fifth-largest state in terms of small and medium enterprises listed on the NSE’s Emerge platform, with 23 issues to date. As of September, the combined market capitalisation of these companies stood at ₹9,606 crore.
The state’s securities market penetration remains low, however. Fewer than 10 per cent of households (9.8 per cent) have invested in mutual funds, stocks, derivatives, corporate bonds, alternative investment funds, or similar products, according to a Securities and Exchange Board of India investor survey conducted by Kantar in association with exchanges and market institutions. By comparison, penetration is 15.4 per cent in Gujarat and 17 per cent in Maharashtra.
Per capita income data reflect the state’s steady rise. In 2018-19, the average person in Tamil Nadu earned slightly less than a person in Gujarat. By 2023-24, Tamil Nadu’s per capita net state domestic product at current prices reached ₹3.15 lakh, overtaking Gujarat’s ₹2.98 lakh. Both figures remain above the national average.
The changes come even as fewer investors are signing up to trade on the stock market.
Cumulative additions on the NSE crossed 120 million as of September, but the pace has decelerated: average monthly registrations fell from 1.98 million in the first half of 2024-25 to 1.23 million in 2025-26.
