A Sebi survey states that the most preferred savings option is Fixed Deposit. Close to 95 percent of households opt for FD option and less than 10 percent of them show interest towards mutual funds or stocks, says a recent report.
The second most preferred option is life insurance and this is followed by investing in precious metals, postal savings, and real estate. There are 9.7 percent investors for mutual funds, and for stocks, its 8.1 percent. There are just 1 percent investors for pension schemes, company deposits, debentures, derivatives and commodity futures.
With the rural households, there was hardly anyone who were investors. Their exposure to mutual funds and equities was mere 1.4 percent.
There is constant increase in investor base in India. Out of everyone surveyed, 75 percent of them said they had taken part in securities market for the first time in the previous 5 years.
There are 3.37 investors in India, says the survey. Out of this, 70 percent of the population is with urban areas. The total sample size of the survey is 50,453 households.