Investor accounts in NSDL, CDSL recorded at 2.5 crore

Mumbai: Total number of investor accounts at two depositories -- NSDL and CDSL -- stood at 2.5 crore at the end of February, translating to an addition of 18.64 lakh in past one year.

The cumulative number of investor accounts stood at 2.33 crore at the end of February 2015.

Interestingly, as many as 18.64 lakh accounts have been added so far since March, 2015 as against 14.9 lakh account additions seen during the same period last year, indicating a boost in investor sentiment towards the capital markets, an analysis of data available with depositories and Sebi showed.

National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) and 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.

As per data, the total number of investor accounts at NSDL stood at nearly 1.45 crore as on February 29, 2016, against nearly 1.38 crore in the same period year-ago.

CDSL reported 1.06 crore investor accounts for February-end, this year -- an addition of about 11.50 lakh accounts over 95.2 lakh accounts in the same period last year.

According to market analysts, the number of demat accounts has seen a rise in past year on account of positive stock market sentiments, more initial public offers (IPOs) and digitisation of new securities classes like insurance.

They also feel that simplification of demat account opening process has also led to growth in investor numbers.

Since last year beginning March 1, 2015, key indices Sensex and Nifty have plunged by more than 20 percent.

The data showed that total value of securities in dematerialised form at the depositories stood at 121 lakh crore for end of February, 2016, a growth of 18 per cent over the same period in 2015.

NSDL registered demat securities worth Rs 109 lakh crore while CDSL recorded demat value stood at Rs 12 lakh crore, for February-end.