Market hits Rs 50-tn mark; attracts one lakh new investors

The ongoing surge in the stock market has pushed the shareholders' wealth past Rs 50,00,000 crore mark -- in the process bringing in over one lakh new investors on-board in just one month.

The ongoing surge in the stock market has pushed the shareholders' wealth past Rs 50,00,000 crore mark -- in the process bringing in over one lakh new investors on-board in just one month.

HT Image

A total of about 1.2 lakh new stock market investors opened their demat accounts, which is necessary to trade in equities, during the month of May, according to data available with the two depositories, National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) and Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL).

This has increased the total number of demat accounts in the country to over 1.5 crore.

The market experts believe that the inflow of a large number of new investors into the market could be attributed the sharp surge in the recent months as well as expectations for revival of the IPO market with some fundamentally-sound public issues by the government-run companies.

The total investor wealth, measured in terms of cumulative market capitalisation of all the listed companies, has soared to about Rs 51,00,000 crore. This represents a gain of about Rs 23,00,000 crore from the level seen in later October last year, although it is still about Rs 20,00,000 crore below the peak seen in January 2008.