The rising uncertainty in the market curtailed new investor registrations in January, as they fell 13% month-on-month to 1.65 million, from 1.89 million in December 2024, the latest Market Pulse report of the NSE has revealed. Falling markets due to relentless selling by foreign investors, weakness in corporate earnings and the uncertainty over global trade have dampened new investor interest.
At the same time, participation of individual investors in the cash market rose to 359 million in the financial year till January 31, compared with 307 million in the last fiscal. However, it declined to a nine-month low of 13 million in January 2025. Participation in the equity derivatives segment also saw a fall to 3.67 million in January, the lowest since August 2023, while the monthly average stood at 4.46 million for the first 10 months of FY25, the report noted.
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Nearly 79% of Rs 22 lakh crore traded in the cash segment in January was executed by just 0.2% of investors, while 91% of investors contributed 2.4% to the turnover, the report said.
According to the report, young investors under 30 years of age continued to dominate with a share of 40.2%, followed by the age group of 30-39 years at 29.3%. “The share of investors in the 40-49 years and 50-59 year age brackets has steadily decreased.”
Region-wise, new registrations from south India fell the most, by 19.1%, over December, followed by west India. New investor registrations in the north declined 11% to 640,000. At 9.7%, eastern India recorded the smallest decline.
In January, foreign institutional investors pulled out Rs 78,027 crore, domestic institutions invested Rs 86,592 crore and individuals’ inflow stood at Rs 14,511 crore.
The impact of the correction was also seen in the primary market as fundraising slumped 75% month-on-month to Rs 16,191 crore in January. “Notably, funds raised through IPOs declined for both the mainboard and Emerge, wherein equity raised stood at Rs 2,078 crore (-92% MoM) and Rs 342 crore (-40% MoM), respectively,” the report said.
In a recent post on X, Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath had said the broking industry is seeing a massive drop in both the number as well as volume.
“Combined with the true-to-market circular,
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