At Khambatta Securities – a mid-sized broking house in Mumbai near the stock exchange, the phones keep ringing. Traders are frantically busy on their computers throughout the trading hours, fulfilling the buy and sell orders that are pouring in.

The number of investor accounts is increasing by the day. People who have never invested in the stock market in their lives are signing up for “systematic investment plans” (SIPs) through which they allocate a certain amount of money every month, from as little as 500 rupees (S$8) to several hundred thousand, into mutual funds. Direct investments into individual stocks are also rising.