One-third of India's wealth coming from stock markets, says NSE's Ashish Chauhan

Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD and CEO, NSE

One out of every three rupees of India's wealth comes from stock markets, National Stock Exchange's MD and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan said on January 5. He added that India's economy could grow to $100 trillion in the next 50 years or even earlier.

While government officials and ministers have projected that India will become a $4 trillion economy before the 2024 elections, the National Stock Exchange's total market capitalisation stands at $4.34 trillion as of 2023 end. According to a UBS report, wealth in India stood at $15.4 trillion in 2022.

"If the world is going to create $250 trillion of more wealth, and we as almost 18 percent of the total world population and 20-22 percent of the young population, we might create 30 percent of total wealth," Chauhan said speaking at Bombay Chartered Accountants' Society (BCAS)’s ReImagine 2024 event.

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At present, there are 8.5 crore investors of which more than 2 crore are women, while more than 5 crore households invest directly through stock markets, which account for 17/18 percent of India's total households.

"It is a great leap of faith," said Chauhan, while talking about how India's capital markets are helping in wealth creation.

"People's lifestyle has changed because of capital markets in the last decade... Bitcoin's motive is to look for the next fool, while stock markets' motive is the promise of profit share in someone's company," he added.

NSE in CY23

NSE's investor base increased from 7 crore to 8 crore in eight months to September 2023. It ended the year with an 8.5 crore investor base. About 99.8 percent of India's pincodes are covered in terms of investor registrations. Uttar Pradesh took the second position in terms of total registered investors with 90 lakh participants.

Individual investors, who traded at least once in equity derivatives last calendar year stood at 83.6 lakh up 31 percent year-on-year (YoY), while for the cash segment, the number declined 0.4 percent YoY to 2.67 crore.