Around 1.65 lakh demat accounts opened in October

Mumbai: Around 1.65 lakh investor accounts were added during the month of October, taking the cumulative number of such accounts on the nation's two depositories to 2.43 crore, shows latest data.

The two depositories, CDSL and NSDL, witnessed an addition of about 1.8 lakh investor accounts during September.

With 1.65 lakh more dematerialised (demat) accounts in October, overall 17.35 lakh new investor accounts have now been opened in the past 12 months (till October 31), according to latest data available with the depositories and market regulator Sebi.

Indian capital markets in the last one year have seen a spurt in the number of retail investors on account of positive sentiments towards equities, more initial public offers (IPOs) and digitisation of new securities classes like insurance.

At the end of October, the total number of investor accounts at NSDL stood at nearly 1.42 crore, up from 1.41 crore registered till September-end this year. This implies an addition of 68,809 accounts in October.

CDSL reported 1.02 crore investor accounts till October- end this year, an addition of about 96,556 accounts in the month.

The National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) and the Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) allow investors to deposit securities by opening an account.

The securities such as shares, debentures, bonds of investors are held in electronic form (dematerialised form) at the depositories.

According to information available with NSDL, an average of 3,589 accounts have been opened per day on the depository since November, 1996.