New Delhi, Jun 7 (Agency) Leading stock exchange BSE on Monday crossed the milestone of seven crore registered users based on Unique Client Code (UCC) amid the coronavirus pandemic. The journey from 6 crore to 7 crore users took just 139 days, as compared to 241, 652 and 939 days needed for the previous milestones of 6 crore, 5 crore and 4 crore, respectively, the BSE said in a statement.
Of the 7 crore users, 38 per cent fall in the 30-40 age bracket, followed by 24 per cent in 20-30 and 13 per cent in the 40-50 age bracket. The growth has been fuelled by tech-savvy young users, with an age profile of 20-40, who contributed 82 lakh of the 1 crore user additions from 6 crore to 7 crore, the exchange said. ‘This milestone is a testament to BSE efforts to bring more investors especially from the retail side on the exchange platform. BSE remains confident that to leverage its increasing reach and capacity for delivery of a wider range of financial products including mutual funds, insurance and so on,’ Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD and CEO of BSE said.
In terms of states, Maharashtra and Gujarat lead in terms of investors with a share of 21.5 per cent and 12.3 per cent of the total 7 crore investors, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 7.5 per cent and Karnataka and Tamil Nadu at 6.1 per cent each. Among states, the fastest growth rates from 6 crore to 7 crore registered investor accounts have recorded by Assam (82 per cent), seven sister states (30 per cent) and Jammu Kashmir & Ladakh (24 per cent). Among the larger states, Uttar Pradesh has seen the fastest growth by onboarding 9.57 lakh investors with a growth rate of 22 per cent followed by Rajasthan (6.64 lakh investors or growth of 24 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (5.84 lakh investors or growth of 29 per cent). Over the last few years BSE said it has been working with members for e-enabling customers with a less-paper ecosystem and on-boarding through an easy and hassle-free digital process. To take advantage of the Covid-19 induced stock market crash in March 2020, followed by a gradual recovery later on, thousands of retail investors have embraced equities for the first time during the pandemic in India, as seen from the rapid growth of registered investors since April last year.