NSE volume hits 45% of all trades in the world on several days, says CEO Ashish Chauhan

Ashish Chauhan, NSE CEO and MD

The trade volume on NSE is so high that it accounts for 45 percent of all trades in the world on several days, said Ashish Chauhan, CEO of National Stock Exchange. Chauhan was speaking at the 28th Annual General Meeting of Asia Securities Forum (ASF) hosted by the Bombay Stock Exchange Brokers’ Forum (BBF) on October 30.

Chauhan stated that India was the pioneer in automated stock markets. “In 1994, for the first time, a stock exchange was created that matched orders automatically. Nowhere in the world has such an exchange been successful before. The National Stock Exchange was the first such experiment that became successful in 1994,” he said.

Further, he drew attention to the level of transparency and individual reach of the Indian stock market. “We are not an omnibus market. Each individual is now connected to us directly,” Chauhan said. “We know their phone numbers; we know their email addresses; we know their physical addresses; we even have their biometrics from the government,” he added.

“More than 80 million investors are registered with us and each time they place an order, we know who placed the order,” Chauhan said, adding, “We will reach 90 million unique investors in the next few months.”

Commenting on the huge growth potential for India, Chauhan said the next place of wealth generation will be fuelled by technology. The young population demographic is a key driver to India's growth.

“Young people capture digitisation. Young people also capture the adoption of technology and demand also comes from young people. My iPhone is six years old and I think it is doing well. My son wants a new one every year. That is where the demand is coming from. India has the demographics, passion and the demand for growth,” Chauhan said citing a personal example to show growing consumption demand.