PSX Investor Base Hits Record 681,965 After 47% Jump in 2026

Pakistan’s stock market now has more investors than ever. The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended October 2026 with a record 681,965 investors after adding a net 218,894 in the first 10 months of the year, a 47.3% increase, according to figures released between 3 and 5 November. Young people in Punjab and Sindh are driving the growth, helped by easier account opening and a strong year for share prices.

What happened?

The investor base rose from 463,071 at the start of 2026 to 681,965 at the end of October, The Nation and TechJuice reported. Khurram Shehzad, adviser to the finance minister, said in remarks and a post on X that the total is 56% higher than a year earlier.

October was the strongest month on record. A net 25,747 investors were added, 66% more than in October 2025 and slightly above September’s 25,281. Gross new accounts in October totalled 26,843, of which 26,801 were opened by individuals and 42 by companies.

Shehzad also said that the 218,894 investors added so far in 2026 are more than the combined additions of the previous four calendar years, 2022 to 2025. Since June 2022, when the base stood at 274,970, the market has gained a net 406,995 investors, a 148% expansion.

He said the rise “signals growing confidence in Pakistan’s economic stabilisation,” according to the APP report carried by The Nation.

Who are the new investors?

The October data gives a clear picture of the people opening accounts:

• Age: People aged 18 to 30 opened 14,634 accounts (54.6% of new individual accounts) and those aged 31 to 45 opened 9,290 (34.7%). Together that is 89.3%.
• Gender: Men opened 22,878 accounts (85.4%) and women 3,923 (14.6%).
• Location: Punjab led with 14,891 new accounts, followed by Sindh with 7,643. Together they made up 83.9%. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa added 1,894, Islamabad 1,419, Balochistan 370, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 340 and Gilgit-Baltistan 150. Another 136 were opened by investors abroad.
• Account type: 20,698 of the new accounts (77.2%) were simplified Sahulat accounts, against 6,103 normal accounts, 24NewsHD reported.

The Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX), the country’s commodities exchange, also opened 1,077 accounts in October, taking its total to 61,915.

Why is the PSX investor base growing so fast?

Several changes have made it easier and more attractive to invest:

• Strong returns. The benchmark KSE-100 index rose about 43.5% in the 2025–26 fiscal year, from 125,627 to 180,302 points, and market capitalisation climbed from Rs15.24 trillion to Rs20.20 trillion, according to PSX annual report figures cited by 24NewsHD.
• Higher Sahulat limits. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) raised the investment limit on Sahulat accounts from Rs1 million to Rs3 million in March 2026.
• Faster account opening. An SECP circular set a target of one working day to process complete Sahulat applications and two working days for normal accounts.
• Faster settlement. The PSX moved to T+1 settlement, where trades settle one business day later, on 9 February 2026.
• More listings. The SECP approved 14 initial public offerings in the 2025–26 fiscal year.

SECP chairman Dr Kabir Ahmed Sidhu said easier access to investment and protecting investors’ rights are among the regulator’s main priorities, and that transparency and effective supervision are key to market confidence, The Nation reported.

Why it matters

Even at a record, 681,965 investors is still a small base for a country of Pakistan’s size, which is why the SECP’s target is far higher. Bringing more household savings into listed companies gives businesses a local source of capital beyond bank loans.

That is already visible in new listings. This week, fintech-backed ABHI Microfinance Bank drew bids for 59% more shares than it offered in its IPO book building; read our report on the ABHI Microfinance Bank IPO. Its 33 million-share retail offer on 12 and 13 November will be an early test of how much of this new investor base is ready to buy into fresh listings.

A wave of first-time investors also brings risk. Markets can fall as well as rise, as the recent Nasdaq correction in the US showed, and many new accounts belong to people with little trading history.

What happens next?

The SECP has set a goal of 2.5 million stock market investors, which would mean more than tripling today’s base. It is running a nationwide awareness campaign, and a Capital Market Development Fund agreed in May 2026 is backing outreach work, including a mobile account-opening project called StocksPK that is being developed by the Central Depository Company, 24NewsHD reported.