Key Details
The handbook organises 87 statistical tables into nine areas. Most are downloadable Excel files, with annual series supplemented by monthly or quarterly data where available.
Area | Data Covered |
|---|---|
Primary market | Equity issues, corporate debt, QIPs, preferential allotments, IPO allocations, REITs and InvITs |
Secondary market | Cash equities, derivatives, settlements, liquidity, valuations and participant-wise turnover |
Depositories | Dematerialised securities, listed and unlisted companies, and instrument-wise holdings |
Foreign investment | FPI flows, assets under custody and offshore derivative instruments |
Fund management | Mutual funds, SIPs, portfolio managers, venture capital and alternative investment funds |
Regulatory activity | Investor grievances, SEBI investigations, intermediaries and market infrastructure institutions |
Global comparison | Volatility, closing values and valuations of major international indices |
A Data Release Rather Than a Narrative Report
The handbook differs from SEBI’s Annual Report. The Annual Report explains market developments, regulatory measures and institutional priorities. The handbook provides the underlying statistical series for users to conduct their own analysis.
Its scope extends across the securities-market ecosystem, allowing readers to examine questions such as:
How companies raise equity and debt capital
Which investor categories receive IPO allocations
How trading is distributed across securities, members and cities
How participation differs across cash and derivatives markets
How foreign investment and assets under custody change over time
How household savings move through mutual funds and SIPs
How alternative investment vehicles are expanding
How many investor grievances and investigations SEBI handles
Annual, Monthly and Quarterly Series Serve Different Uses
Long annual series help identify structural changes in market participation and financing. Monthly tables can reveal shorter-term shifts in fundraising, trading and investment flows.
Quarterly reporting is used for areas such as investments by venture capital funds and amounts mobilised by Alternative Investment Funds. A few mutual-fund datasets—including investments in REITs and InvITs and unit-holding patterns—are available monthly.
Users must still compare tables carefully. The handbook combines stocks, flows, transaction values, account counts and percentages, which cannot be interpreted in the same way.
Why the Release Matters
The handbook creates a common statistical reference for policymakers, market participants, researchers and investors. It can support analysis that goes beyond headline stock indices, including whether:
Capital raising is broadening across instruments and regions
Corporate bond markets are becoming deeper and more liquid
Retail activity is concentrated in riskier market segments
Domestic investment is reducing dependence on foreign flows
Mutual funds and alternative funds are widening access to market-based finance
Grievance redressal and enforcement capacity are keeping pace with participation
Its downloadable format also makes the underlying series more usable than data available only through charts or narrative reports.
Policy Relevance
Regulation can be assessed against market outcomes. The series allow researchers to examine whether reforms are changing liquidity, participation, fundraising and investor behaviour.
Cross-market analysis becomes easier. Equity, debt, derivatives, mutual funds and alternative funds can be studied within a common statistical framework.
Investor protection can be tracked alongside market expansion. Data on participation, grievances and investigations help test whether regulatory capacity is growing with the market.
Greater standardisation would improve usability. Common definitions, revision notes and an integrated machine-readable database would make comparisons across the 87 tables more reliable.
Public access supports accountability. Regular, granular data allow official claims about market depth and inclusion to be independently evaluated.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How can SEBI turn its extensive statistical collection into a more integrated public database that supports faster and more reproducible policy analysis?
Follow the Full Handbook Here: SEBI’s Handbook of Statistics 2025–26