Why are so many Indians piling into stocks?
The country is in the middle of an unprecedented retail-investment boom
BY THE END of March 2020 the number of individuals registered to trade with India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) totalled just 31m (of a population of 1.4bn). In the months that followed, even as a new virus upended global society, another bug was quietly spreading among the Indian middle classes: an infectious enthusiasm for investing. Within 12 months the number of investors had expanded by a third to 40m. Today there are more than 90m unique accounts registered with the exchange. An alternative measure, that tries to gauge nationwide stock trading accounts, has nearly tripled between 2019 and 2023, from 41m to 140m. The Nifty 50, NSE’s benchmark index, routinely hits all-time highs, most recently on March 7th.
Explore more
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Stock and awe”
From the March 9th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Asia
Can Donald Trump maintain Joe Biden’s network of Asian alliances?
Discipline and creativity will help, but so will China’s actions
What North Korea gains by sending troops to fight for Russia
Resources, technology, experience and a blood-soaked IOU
Is Arkadag the world’s greatest football team?
What could possibly explain the success of a club founded by Turkmenistan’s dictator
After the president’s arrest, what next for South Korea?
Some 3,000 police breached his compound. The country is dangerously divided
India’s Faustian pact with Russia is strengthening
The gamble behind $17bn of fresh deals with the Kremlin on oil and arms
AUKUS enters its fifth year. How is the pact faring?
It has weathered two big political changes. What about Donald Trump’s return?