TradingTurnover
How many investors actually trade?
NSE reported about 13.52 crore unique registered investors at the end of Aug 2026. About 1.45 crore traded during that month. Registration tells us how large the potential investor base is; trading counts show how many participated during a stated period.
Written for readers following the reach of India's stock market and changes in cash and derivatives participation. Latest observation Aug 2026.
Registered and active
These counts cover all investor categories in Aug 2026. An active participant traded at least once during the month. Someone who did not trade may still hold investments. Unique registered investors use NSE's PAN-based registration measure; they are different from client accounts held with brokers.
Source: NSE Market Pulse, Sept 2026, PDF page 296. All investor categories. Counts are rounded as published; monthly segment counts need not sum exactly to the rounded active total.
| Measure | Reported count |
|---|---|
| Unique registered investors | 13.52 crore |
| Traded at least once in Aug 2026 | 1.45 crore |
| Traded in cash only | 1.1 crore |
| Traded in F&O only | 19 lakh |
| Traded in both cash and F&O | 15.1 lakh |
Read the original monthly participation diagram. The annual individual-investor series below has a narrower population and a longer activity window.
Cash and derivatives over time
In the twelve months to Aug 2026, 358.5 lakh individual investors traded in cash and 85.2 lakh in F&O. Against the previous twelve-month window, cash participation changed by 0.1% and F&O by −7.5%. Counts show market reach, rather than the value or frequency of trading.
Individual investors who traded in the trailing year
One observation per year, for the twelve months ending Aug. The same investor can appear in both lines. Individuals include domestic individuals, NRIs, sole proprietorships and HUFs.
How to read it. Compare each line with its own earlier values. Adding the two lines double-counts people who traded in both segments.
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Source: NSE Market Pulse. Every row covers twelve months. Counts are rounded to 0.1 lakh; these are annual observations, not monthly active-client history.
| Trailing twelve-month window | Cash total, lakh | F&O total, lakh | Cash only, lakh | F&O only, lakh | Both, lakh | More |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep'25-Aug'26 | 358.5 | 85.2 | 295.3 | 21.9 | 63.2 | |
| Sep'24-Aug'25 | 358.1 | 92.1 | 286.4 | 20.3 | 71.8 | |
| Sep'23-Aug'24 | 352.7 | 108.5 | 263.9 | 19.7 | 88.8 | |
| Sep'22-Aug'23 | 249.9 | 75.4 | 190.5 | 16.0 | 59.4 | |
| Sep'21-Aug'22 | 282.1 | 59.0 | 230.6 | 7.6 | 51.5 | |
| Sep'20-Aug'21 | 198.5 | 34.8 | 167.1 | 3.5 | 31.3 | |
| Sep'19-Aug'20 | 110.9 | 18.4 | 94.3 | 1.8 | 16.6 | |
| Sep'18-Aug'19 | 75.9 | 12.2 | 65.4 | 1.6 | 10.6 | |
| Sep'17-Aug'18 | 75.5 | 10.4 | 66.3 | 1.2 | 9.3 | |
| Sep'16-Aug'17 | 57.8 | 7.9 | 51.0 | 1.1 | 6.8 | |
| Sep'15-Aug'16 | 46.8 | 7.1 | 40.8 | 1.1 | 6.0 |
Who trades in both?
63.2 lakh individuals traded in both cash and F&O over Sep'25-Aug'26. Another 295.3 lakh traded only in cash and 21.9 lakh only in F&O. These three groups are mutually exclusive within the same trailing-year window.
Cash only, F&O only and both: Sep'25-Aug'26
Traded at least once during the trailing twelve months. Source-rounded counts; individual-investor definition as in the annual chart.
How to read it. A change in F&O participation can come from people trading only derivatives or those also active in cash. The full table above keeps both groups visible.
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Where the investor base is spreading
Uttar Pradesh (+4.5 pts), Bihar (+2.5 pts), Madhya Pradesh (+1.6 pts) had the largest increases in their shares of NSE's unique registered investor base between March 2020 and Aug 2026. This ranking covers individually named states and territories. The comparison measures a change in registrations' geographic footprint; it does not tell us where the most money was invested.
State shares of unique registered investors
Fifteen largest named investor bases in Aug 2026. PAN-based registered investors. March 2020 versus Aug 2026; all source categories remain in the national denominators.
How to read it. This is a historical comparison of registered investors. The separate client-account page measures accounts and new registrations at later dates.
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Source: NSE Market Pulse, PDF page 236. Counts are in thousands, rounded by NSE. Others is a source grouping of smaller states and territories. Historical geography follows NSE's published categories.
| State or source category | Registered investors, Aug 2026, thousands | Share, Aug 2026 | Share, March 2020 | Change since March 2020 | More |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maharashtra | 20,903 | 15.5% | 19.2% | −3.7 pts | |
| Uttar Pradesh | 16,150 | 11.9% | 7.4% | +4.5 pts | |
| Gujarat | 11,541 | 8.5% | 12.2% | −3.7 pts | |
| West Bengal | 8,040 | 5.9% | 6.4% | −0.5 pts | |
| Rajasthan | 7,817 | 5.8% | 4.3% | +1.5 pts | |
| Tamil Nadu | 7,647 | 5.7% | 7.0% | −1.3 pts | |
| Karnataka | 7,503 | 5.5% | 6.3% | −0.8 pts | |
| Madhya Pradesh | 6,517 | 4.8% | 3.2% | +1.6 pts | |
| Andhra Pradesh | 6,492 | 4.8% | 5.1% | −0.3 pts | |
| Bihar | 6,320 | 4.7% | 2.2% | +2.5 pts | |
| Delhi | 5,604 | 4.1% | 6.0% | −1.9 pts | |
| Haryana | 4,515 | 3.3% | 3.1% | +0.2 pts | |
| Punjab | 3,599 | 2.7% | 2.3% | +0.4 pts | |
| Kerala | 3,479 | 2.6% | 3.0% | −0.4 pts | |
| Telangana | 3,228 | 2.4% | 2.6% | −0.2 pts | |
| Odisha | 3,000 | 2.2% | 1.6% | +0.6 pts | |
| Assam | 2,938 | 2.2% | 0.7% | +1.5 pts | |
| Jharkhand | 2,465 | 1.8% | 1.4% | +0.4 pts | |
| Others | 1,897 | 1.4% | 2.9% | −1.5 pts | |
| Chhattisgarh | 1,659 | 1.2% | 0.8% | +0.4 pts | |
| Uttarakhand | 1,451 | 1.1% | 0.8% | +0.3 pts | |
| Himachal Pradesh | 886 | 0.7% | 0.4% | +0.3 pts | |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 816 | 0.6% | 0.4% | +0.2 pts | |
| Goa | 288 | 0.2% | 0.3% | −0.1 pts | |
| Chandigarh | 262 | 0.2% | 0.3% | −0.1 pts | |
| Tripura | 234 | 0.2% | 0.1% | +0.1 pts |
Who is joining?
People below 30 accounted for 59.0% of new individual registrations in FY27 through Aug 2026, compared with 37.7% of the registered individual base at that month's end. New registrations are a flow over the fiscal year to date; the existing base is a stock at one date.
Age profile of the investor base and new registrations
Registered base at the end of Aug 2026; new registrations from April through Aug 2026. Individuals and sole proprietorships only. Each group has its own denominator.
How to read it. A younger intake can change the age mix of registrations. These figures do not measure the age profile of active traders or investment returns.
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NSE research and source data
The Sept 2026 Market Pulse supplies the figures on this page. Recurring statistical publications can be turned into repeatable indicators; working papers provide questions and methods that need their own evidence before becoming a live signal.
- Market Pulse archive: the recurring source for registrations, participant counts, age profiles and regional activity. Read this page's source issue.
- NSE Factbook: longer-run exchange and market statistics, useful for checking definitions and historical breaks.
- NSE working papers: the catalogue includes studies of small investors in derivatives (2016, paper 168), trading rules and trader behaviour (2019, paper 214), and settlement design (2021, paper 235). These are research references; their underlying investor-level data is not supplied by this page.
Download the extracted source tables and provenance (JSON) or the annual participation table (CSV). Source issue Sept 2026; latest observations Aug 2026. The source's historical age and state tables are retained in the JSON.
The workings
The question
Data
Every chart has a table view, a CSV download and a link to its published JSON. Bundles are listed in data status.