India's largest bourse saw its registered investor base expand to a whopping 12.7 crore as of Jan. 31, 2026, according to NSE's monthly review report 'pulse'. With the exponential growth, NSE's investor base nearly quadrupled over the last six years. Additions touched a 15-month high in January after the bourse added 17.7 lakh new investors.
Notably, women made up one-fourth or 25% of the market participants. In January too, the growth in female investors continued consistently.
Among the states, women investor numbers were highest in Maharashtra with 28.9% of its investor base (compared to 25.6% in FY23), followed by Gujarat at 28.3%. Maharashtra also tops the list of overall registered investors with 2 crore investors.
However, even as Uttar Pradesh ranked second in terms of overall investors, women lagged behind in participation, accounting for just 19% of investors—considerably below the national average of 24.9%. Even so, the state has made commendable progress, having recorded a female individual investor share of 16.9% in FY23.
The share of female investors exceeded the national average in over half the states in India. Smaller states also reflected gender inclusivity in the field of investing.
In Goa, women made up 33.2% of the total registered investor base. In Mizoram, the proportion was 32.5%, while it was 32.4% in Chandigarh. Women investors in Sikkim comprised 31.4% of the total number of investors. All these states reported the highest female investor participation rates.
The total number of unique client codes and investor accounts registered with the exchange also surpassed the 25-crore mark on Feb. 12, 2026. Since investors may maintain accounts with multiple brokers, the total number of trading accounts exceeds the count of unique registered investors.
Region-Wise Growth & Triggers
The structural deepening of the investor base grew due to heightened access to capital markets through a number of financial literacy initiatives.
Regionally, north India continues to lead with a registered investor base of 4.6 crore, followed by western India at 3.7 crore, southern India (with 2.7 crore investors) and eastern India with over 1.5 crore investors.
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