At a time when the equity benchmark indices – Sensex and Nifty – are registering new highs almost on a daily basis, the equity investment cult is also on the rise in the country with newer states and cities reporting a robust growth in the number of investors entering the stock markets.

Data from BSE and NSE shows that while traditional hotspots like Mumbai and Ahmedabad with states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan still account for the highest number of investors, the last few years have seen the north eastern states along with cities like Indore, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Rajkot and Pune, among others, reporting a healthy growth in the number of stock market investors.

Data from BSE shows that states and union territories like Ladakh (370.57 percent), Mizoram (81.10 percent), Arunachal Pradesh (62.19 percent), Lakshadweep (61.78 percent), Tripura (56.10 percent), Jammu & Kashmir (53.79 percent), Nagaland (52.95 percent), Andaman & Nicobar (49.51 percent) and Bihar (49.41 percent) reported the highest growth in the number of new investors added in the last one year.

To be sure, many of these states benefited from the low-base effect even as Tripura, J&K and Bihar already boast of an investor base of a few lakhs.

This assumes significance as the Indian stock markets are among the best performing markets globally in the current calendar year with the Sensex and Nifty gaining around 10 percent in dollar terms in CY24 – the best in the emerging markets pack.

Meanwhile, in terms of the absolute number of investors, Maharashtra still occupies the top slot with nearly 3.35 crore investors followed by Uttar Pradesh (1.97 crore), Gujarat (1.68 crore), Rajasthan (1.08 crore) and West Bengal (1.01 crore).

Incidentally, these are the only five states in the country that have more than a crore registered investors.

Meanwhile, in the case of NSE, the list of top ten districts in terms of new investor additions was led by Delhi and Mumbai followed by Bangalore, Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, North 24 Paraganas, Nagpur and Kolkata.

In terms of states, Uttar Pradesh continued to lead with 2.6 lakh new registrations in May, registering a 15.5 percent month-on-month increase.

“Maharashtra maintained the second position with close to 2.2 lakh new registrations in May’24 translating into a 51% YoY growth (+17.5% MoM). Among the top three states, Uttar Pradesh’s share marginally fell to 14.7% (vs 14.9% in Apr’24), Maharashtra’s share remained unchanged at 12.4% in May’24, while West Bengal’s share also experienced a marginal fall to 7.2% (vs 7.3% in Apr’24),” stated the NSE Pulse report for the month of June.

The concentration in the top 10 districts, however, rose marginally in May, as per data from NSE.

“New investor registrations continued to remain concentrated in a few districts, with the contribution of top 10 districts increasing to 19.4% in May’24 (vs. 19% in Apr’24), as the number of registrations in these districts increased by 19.6% MoM to 3.4 lakh,” stated the NSE press release.