In April 2025, the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) achieved a significant milestone by surpassing 22 crore (220 million) investor accounts, represented by Unique Client Codes (UCCs). This remarkable growth comes just six months after crossing the 20-crore (200 million) mark in October 2024, underscoring the rapid expansion of India’s investor base.
As of March 31, 2025, the number of unique registered investors reached 11.3 crore (113 million), having surpassed the 11-crore (110 million) threshold on January 20, 2025. Notably, an individual investor may hold multiple accounts with different brokers, which explains the higher number of UCCs compared to unique registered investors.
Regional Highlights
Maharashtra leads the nation with the highest number of investor accounts at 3.8 crore, followed closely by Uttar Pradesh with 2.4 crore, Gujarat with 1.9 crore, and Rajasthan and West Bengal each accounting for approximately 1.3 crore accounts. Collectively, these top five states represent nearly 49% of the total investor accounts, while the top ten states contribute roughly three-fourths of the overall count.
Market Performance
Over the past five years, the benchmark Nifty 50 Index has delivered an impressive annualized return of 22%, while the Nifty 500 Index has outperformed with a 25% annualized return. These robust returns highlight the substantial wealth creation opportunities available to investors during this period.
Commenting on these significant achievements, Shri Sriram Krishnan, Chief Business Development Officer, NSE, stated: Shri Sriram Krishnan, Chief Business Development Officer, NSE said, “India’s investor base continues to expand rapidly, with over 2 crore new accounts added in just six months—a clear reflection of strong investor confidence in India’s growth trajectory despite global economic headwinds. This surge has been driven by accelerated digital transformation and the increasing adoption of mobile trading, which have made capital markets more accessible to investors across tier 2, 3, and 4 cities.”
“As participation broadens across a range of instruments— Equities, ETFs, REITs, InvITs, and Bonds—this milestone signals a maturing financial ecosystem where technology is playing a pivotal role in democratizing investment opportunities” he added.
NSE launches Nifty500 Flexicap Quality 30 Index
In a move to further enhance its offerings and provide benchmarks for evolving investment strategies, NSE’s index services subsidiary, NSE Indices Limited, launched in April a new strategy index – the Nifty500 Flexicap Quality 30. This innovative index aims to track the performance of 30 high-quality stocks selected from across the large-cap (Nifty100 Quality 30), mid-cap (Nifty Midcap150 Quality 50), and small-cap (Nifty Smallcap250 Quality 50) universes. The selection is based on their six-month average free-float market capitalization.
The Nifty500 Flexicap Quality 30 employs a dynamic weight allocation strategy between the large-cap segment and the combined mid- and small-cap segments, based on the trend of the Mid-Small to Large ratio and its 200-day Moving Average. Within each market capitalization segment, the selected stocks are equally weighted.
With a base date of October 01, 2009, and a base value of 1000, the index will undergo semi-annual reconstitution and quarterly rebalancing. This new index is anticipated to serve as a valuable benchmark for asset managers and is expected to be tracked by passive investment vehicles such as Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), index funds, and structured products, further deepening the sophistication and breadth of India’s capital markets.
