GUWAHATI

The participation of women in the stock market is among the highest in India but investors in the State are among the most susceptible to online trading scams, officials of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.

A SEBI official said Assam has been a rising force in India’s investment landscape, clocking more than 24.6 lakh registered investors, with 29.8% of them being women.

“The participation of Assam’s women in the securities market is the fifth-largest among all States across the country. They have played a vital role in the State’s investor growth tripling from 0.7% in 2019 to 2.3% in 2024,” the official said at an initiative to promote awareness and protect the interest of investors in the stock market.

The initiative was attended by Anuradha Verma, General Manager, SEBI.

SEBI officials, however, said investors in Assam need to be wary of fraudsters offering higher returns from stock trading. They said many investors, who were not too clued into the way the stock market functions, had been conned in Assam by dubious agencies and brokers. One such trading firm was DB Stock Broking, which defrauded investors of almost ₹7,000 crore in 2024.

DB Stock Broking, which began operations in 2018, had some 16,000 clients. It allegedly invested the clients’ money through a trading platform and promised exceptionally high returns ranging from 8% monthly to 120% annually.

The SEBI’s ‘Regional Investor Seminar for Awareness’ programme focused on educating investors about the securities markets, fraud and scam prevention, rights and responsibilities, and smart investing practices.