'Digitisation helping people in remote corners access markets'

The firm also said the 1.2 per cent Gross Net Disposable Income which goes into equities currently may increase to 3 per cent over the next five years.

"Earlier, why people were investing into the traditional instruments only or traditional products only was because the access was limited.

"Now, digitisation has helped people, even in remote corners, to access the markets also. With digitisation, penetration of data, the access to the products will also increase significantly, which will help financialisation of assets," Dhiraj Relli MD and CEO, HDFC Securities, told reporters here.

He said at present 1.2 per cent of Gross Net Disposable Income goes into equities, "which... will increase at least to 3 per cent over next five years".

He added that the "number of demat, incremental demat has been growing in financial year 2016-17, the addition has been more than 10-12 per cent on the base. 10-12 per cent growth is happening year on year basis, but it should be higher.

Somewhere around 2.5 crore to 3 crore demat accounts are there. Next five years we should be growing continuously at CAGR of 15 per cent."

Relli said there is "limited alternative for the investors to invest today".

"FD (fixed deposit) (interest) rate is between 6-7 per cent, there is liquidity issue in real estate sector, so the investment avenues with the customers are limited...," he said, advising people to keep part of their investments in equities and remain invested for at least three to five years to reap the benefits.

"Equity instrument is an enabler to increase your overall return on the investments," he said.

The brokerage said the markets are looking positive and have responded positively to the structural reforms done by the government in the last three years.

HDFC Securities, he said, is organising investor awareness camps in various cities, including small towns, "where we invite customers and possible investors, we give them our understanding of equity market, we explain to them how they can participate and things like that."

"DNA of equity market is that it will go up and down, but to reap fruits you should be prepared to stay on for at least three to five years," he said.

The brokerage is using digitisation to improve skill sets of students as well.

"At HDFC Securities, as a part of our CSR programme, we are working with the municipal schools in Mumbai and other areas in the West whereby we are setting up Google classrooms for them, which is virtual classroom with computers. The trainer from Google trains the teachers and in turn they are training the students," he said.