India's Gen-Z Stay Away From Equity Risk: SEBI Survey

India's young population is often tagged as being less afraid of consequences when it comes to major life decisions. But that doesn't seem to hold true for the equity markets.

A survey conducted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India and market research firm Kantar noted that nearly 79% of Gen-Z households which invest displayed risk-averse behaviour. Nearly 80% of all Indian households which invest were looking to ensure capital conservation, rather than take on more equity risk.

As such only 9.5% Indian households or 3.2 crore families have invested or are currently invested in equity products. Of this, only 60% are active investors, with the rest being dormant. India currently has 33.7 crore families. Of the 90.5% remaining households in India, 53.5% are those aware of financial products but remain non-investors. Over 37% households are unaware of equity market products and are thus non-investors.

Only 22% of the non-investors aware of equity products intend to actually invest in the future, with the rest being immediate non-prospects.

The penetration of equity products was the highest in top nine metro cities at 23%. Penetration in overall urban centres is at 15%. In comparison, rural areas saw only 6% of its population being invested.

The equity market penetration was highest in the national capital at nearly 21%. Interestingly, Andaman & Nicobar islands with their 17.1% penetration had the second highest ratio of equity investors. Compare that with Maharashtra's 17% and Puduchery's 16.4%.

The lowest penetration of equity products was in Nagaland at 3.4%. This was followed by Meghalaya at 4.2% and Uttarakhand at 4.5%, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Tripura at 5.3% each.

About 6.7% of India's total population invests in mutual funds and exchange traded funds. Direct stock market investments were at 5.3%.