KD NEWS SERVICE
MUMBAI, April 21: For three decades, the script of global equity markets has been written in Washington and Wall Street. Yet, as a new fiscal year dawns, a meticulous dissection of 30 years of data from the National Stock Exchange, drawing on LSEG Workspace and NSE EPR sources, reveals a stunning reversal of fortunes.
The United States, once the beacon of diversified capitalism, has grown more concentrated than at any point since 1995, with its Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, or HHI, a measure of market concentration where a lower score indicates a more evenly distributed market capitalisation across sectors and companies, falling from 119 in 1995 to a low of 59 by 2015 only to surge back to 164 by the end of 2025. Meanwhile, China and India have done the opposite, systematically broadening their market bases even as they outrun the US in long-term growth.
In 1995, China’s market was extraordinarily concentrated, with an HHI of 301, a reflection of its real estate dominance, which then accounted for 34 percent of market capitalisation. By 2025, that real estate share had collapsed to just 2 percent, replaced by a balanced duopoly of Financials and Information Technology, each commanding 18 percent of the market. Consequently, China’s HHI plummeted to 37.7 in 2025, down from 301 three decades earlier. India’s transformation is nearly as dramatic, with its HHI falling from 202.2 in 1995 to 80.9 in 2025. In 1995, financials made up just 10 percent of Indian market capitalisation; by 2025, that share had risen to 25 percent. Yet the Indian story is not one of uniform dispersion, as sectoral concentration remains stark within the country: Communication Services is the most concentrated sector with an HHI of 4,399 in 2025, followed by Energy at 4,010, while Financials stand at 401, Consumer Discretionary at 293, and Information Technology at 1,331, all relatively lower and more moderate. Japan, meanwhile, has remained a portrait of industrial stability, with industrials still accounting for 24 percent of market cap in 2025 and its HHI moving only modestly from 83.9 in 1995 to 75.0 in 2025.
When it comes to sheer size, the US remains unassailable. Its listed market capitalisation grew from $3.0 trillion in 1995 to $9.4 trillion in 2000, then to $11.5 trillion in 2005, $12.9 trillion in 2010, $21.2 trillion in 2015, $42.3 trillion in 2020, and finally $73.3 trillion in 2025. China rose from $0.22 trillion in 1995 to $0.96 trillion in 2000, $1.3 trillion in 2005, $6.2 trillion in 2010, $10.7 trillion in 2015, $17.7 trillion in 2020, and $20.9 trillion in 2025, with data for companies listed in Hong Kong included under China. Japan moved from $2.3 trillion in 1995, remaining at $2.3 trillion in 2000, then rising to $4.0 trillion in 2005, $3.6 trillion in 2010, $4.8 trillion in 2015, $6.7 trillion in 2020, and $7.8 trillion in 2025. India, starting from a mere $0.08 trillion in 1995, grew to $0.11 trillion in 2000, $0.49 trillion in 2005, $1.5 trillion in 2010, $1.4 trillion in 2015, $2.5 trillion in 2020, and $5.3 trillion in 2025.
But velocity tells a different story. Over the full 30-year period from 1995 to 2025, China recorded the fastest annualised growth in listed market capitalisation at 16.4 percent, followed by India at 15.2 percent, the United States at 11.2 percent, and Japan at just 4.2 percent. Over the last 25 years, India leads with a compound annual growth rate of 16.7 percent, compared to China’s 13.1 percent, the US’s 8.6 percent, and Japan’s 5.1 percent. Over 20 years, China’s CAGR of 14.7 percent outpaces India’s 12.7 percent, the US’s 9.7 percent, and Japan’s 3.4 percent. Over 15 years, the US leads with 12.3 percent, followed by India at 8.9 percent, China at 8.4 percent, and Japan at 5.3 percent. Over 10 years, the US again leads with 13.2 percent, then India at 14.0 percent, China at 6.9 percent, and Japan at 5.1 percent. Over the last five years ending in 2025, India actually leads all four nations at 16.4 percent, compared to the US at 11.6 percent, China at 3.4 percent, and Japan at 3.1 percent.
Shifting from this three-decade view to the fiscal year just ended, FY26, the Indian market has delivered what can only be described as a blockbuster performance. Total fund mobilisation through equity and debt instruments reached ₹20.3 lakh crore, a 9 percent increase year-on-year. Within this, equity issuances stood at ₹4.5 lakh crore, up 5 percent year-on-year, while debt issuances were ₹15.5 lakh crore, up 10 percent year-on-year. The initial public offering market was the undisputed star. A total of 219 companies raised ₹1.8 lakh crore in FY26, the highest annual fund mobilisation on record. The impact on market capitalisation was immediate: newly listed companies added approximately ₹12.5 lakh crore to total market capitalisation as of the end of March 2026.
The Mainboard was the primary engine. It witnessed 108 listings raising ₹1.7 lakh crore, marking the highest ever in both the number of listings and the total funds raised. The SME platform, NSE Emerge, also remained exceptionally healthy. In FY26, 111 issuances raised ₹5,363 crore. Looking at the longer track record, since inception, 721 SME IPOs have collectively mobilised over ₹22,000 crore. The market capitalisation of NSE Emerge companies, including those that have since migrated to the Mainboard, stood at ₹1.8 lakh crore. Market depth improved tangibly. In FY26, there were 4 IPOs above the ₹10,000 crore threshold, compared with just 3 in FY25. Furthermore, the average IPO size on the NSE Emerge platform has undergone a dramatic expansion: from ₹13 crore in FY20 to ₹44 crore in FY25, and further to ₹48 crore in FY26.
As of the end of FY26, the National Stock Exchange’s registered investor base reached 12.9 crore. This represents a 3.2-fold increase over the last five years from FY21 to FY26, a growth rate faster than that seen in the previous five-year period from FY16 to FY21. However, the pace of new additions has moderated. In FY26, total new investor additions stood at 1.6 crore. The monthly average fell to 13.5 lakh in FY26, down from 17.5 lakh per month in the prior year. Geographically, participation is broadening. Over the past five years, the combined share of the top 10 states has declined from 76.3 percent in FY21 to 73 percent in FY26. Maharashtra continues to lead the nation, becoming the first state to cross 2 crore registered investors, holding a 15.6 percent share in FY26. Along with Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, and Rajasthan together account for 48 percent of the total investor base as of FY26.
Demographically, the market is getting younger and more female. Younger investors, those below 40 years, accounted for nearly 79 percent of all new registrations in FY26. The median age of registered investors has declined from 36 years in March 2021 to 33 years in March 2026. Female participation has continued its structural rise, reaching 24.9 percent of total investors as of FY26.
Yet, for all the fanfare about broadening participation, the distribution of actual trading activity in FY26 tells a radically different story, one of extreme concentration across cash, futures, and options. In the equity cash market, the skew is stark. The top 0.2 percent of investors, defined as those who traded more than ₹10 crore monthly, contributed 78 percent of the average monthly turnover in FY26, up from 77 percent in FY25 and 75 percent in FY24. At the opposite end, nearly 70 percent of cash market investors traded below ₹1 lakh and contributed just 0.4 percent of the turnover. Within that top trading cohort above ₹10 crore in the cash market, institutional investors dominated. Proprietary traders led with 40 percent of average monthly turnover, followed by Foreign Institutional Investors at 19 percent, and Domestic Institutional Investors at 18 percent. Together, these three segments accounted for 76 percent of average monthly turnover.
In equity options, the concentration is even more pronounced. The top 0.3 percent of investors, again those with premium turnover above ₹10 crore, accounted for 70 percent of all premium turnover. Another 4.8 percent of investors, those with premium turnover between ₹1 crore and ₹10 crore, contributed 17 percent. Thus, just 5.1 percent of all investors, those with premium turnover above ₹1 crore, accounted for 87 percent of total activity, a figure broadly similar to FY25. Meanwhile, around 37 percent of active investors in equity options, those trading with less than ₹1 lakh in premium, contributed only 0.15 percent of premium turnover, underscoring the skewness in activity. Equity futures showed the sharpest concentration despite lower overall participation. The top 8.5 percent of investors, those with monthly turnover above ₹10 crore, accounted for 93.6 percent of turnover. Investors trading above ₹1 crore contributed nearly 99 percent of total activity in the futures segment.
The data presents two parallel realities. On one hand, India and China have successfully dismantled the old, narrow foundations of their markets, replacing them with broader, more diverse structures, even as the US marches toward a tech-concentrated future. On the other hand, India’s record-breaking IPO machine, with ₹1.8 lakh crore raised across 219 listings and a maturing SME segment where average issue sizes have grown from ₹13 crore in FY20 to ₹48 crore in FY26, is bringing millions of new, young, and geographically dispersed investors into the fold. Yet the final statistic remains striking: while 12.9 crore Indians are now registered, with female participation at 24.9 percent and the median age now 33 years, the actual business of trading remains the preserve of a microscopic elite, with 0.2 percent of cash market investors driving 78 percent of turnover, 0.3 percent of options traders controlling 70 percent of premiums, and 8.5 percent of futures traders accounting for 93.6 percent of turnover. The great unbundling of market capitalisation has succeeded. The great unbundling of trading activity has not.
