India's Capital Market Growth: SEBI's Statistics Handbook Highlights Scale and Reform
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure | SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) | National Stock Exchange (NSE) | Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
The SEBI Handbook of Statistics 2024-25, provides comprehensive time-series data on the Indian securities market, reflecting a period of sustained growth, increased institutionalization, and robust regulatory reform. The data highlights India’s emergence as a pivotal global capital market, driven by technology and deepening investor coverage across the country.
Market Scale: India is now the 4th largest capital market by market capitalization globally.
Retail and Institutional Depth: Investor coverage has widened substantially, with few pin codes left in India lacking capital market investors. India’s retail market now includes over 100 million active individual investors, reflecting the accelerated uptake of structured investment vehicles—particularly Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs)—which together form a substantial and steadily growing segment of the investor base. Domestic institutional investors are also playing a significant role.
Primary Market Activity: The number of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) listed grew six times from FY13 to 209 in FY24. India ranked 1st globally in terms of the number of IPO listings in FY24.
Derivatives Market: The Indian exchange continues to be the largest derivatives exchange in the world for the fifth consecutive year by number of contracts traded.
What is a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)? A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is a method of investing in Mutual Funds (MFs) where an investor regularly puts a fixed amount of money into a chosen fund, often on a monthly basis. This disciplined approach to investing is seeing rapid penetration in India, supported by the ability to start with a minimal amount (e.g., ₹250, referred to as ‘Chhoti SIP’) to promote financial empowerment.
The Handbook data supports the narrative of Capital Markets 3.0, characterized by deeper institutionalization, greater global integration, and regulatory evolution:
Mutual Fund Reforms: SEBI introduced more than 10 key measures for Mutual Funds in 2024-25, including allowing investment in overseas funds and introducing ‘Chhoti SIP’ with a minimum amount of ₹250 to expand financial inclusion to underserved sections.
Investor Protection: The regulator introduced measures like the Investor Risk Reduction Access (IRRA) platform to protect investors during broker outages, and tightened eligibility norms for SME IPOs to curb speculative activity.
Technological Governance: The market is utilizing technology like AI-driven strategies and data-driven regulatory oversight, necessitating increased focus on the compliance frameworks related to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
Policy Relevance
The comprehensive statistical data validates the success of regulatory, technological, and financial inclusion policies in transforming India’s capital markets. However, the continued growth in derivatives and SME segments necessitates a persistent policy focus on balancing market dynamism with critical retail investor protection and transparent AI governance to ensure long-term stability and integrity (SDG 8 & 9).
Follow the full news here: Handbook of Statistics 2024-25