The PSX investors record has fallen for the second month running. October 2026 brought 25,747 net new investors to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, the largest monthly addition ever recorded, lifting the total investor base to a record 681,965, according to figures from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) reported by Business Recorder and The News.
The October figure beat the short lived record of 25,281 net additions set only a month earlier in September, which we covered at the time. In total, 26,843 new accounts were opened during October, 26,801 of them individual accounts and just 42 corporate ones, a sign of how completely this wave is being driven by ordinary savers rather than institutions. This is the October edition of a story that keeps outgrowing itself.
Why the PSX Investors Record Keeps Climbing
Three changes explain most of the rush. Account opening has been simplified under the SECP’s consolidated investor onboarding framework, with complete Sahulat applications now processed in about one working day and normal accounts in two. The Sahulat account ceiling was raised from Rs1 million to Rs3 million in March, making the simple starter account useful for far more people. And the regulator is running a nationwide awareness campaign, including StocksPK, a mobile account opening initiative being developed by the Central Depository Company, and online financial learning for first time investors.
The newcomers are young. Figures shared by the finance ministry indicate that about 85 percent of new accounts belong to Generation Z and millennial investors, people opening their first investment account from a phone rather than through a broker’s office. October’s net addition was 66 percent higher than the same month a year earlier, and the total base of 681,965 stands 56 percent higher than a year ago.
The pattern is spreading beyond shares. The Pakistan Mercantile Exchange also recorded 1,077 new accounts in October, taking its investor total to 61,915, as first time investors explored more than one market at once.
The bull outside the Islamabad Stock Exchange, a symbol of Pakistan’s growing community of retail investors (file photo)
Photo: Danish47, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Ten Months That Outweigh Four Years
The scale of the shift is clearest across the year so far. Between January and October 2026, the exchange added 218,894 net new investors, more than the combined additions of the previous four calendar years, 2022 to 2025, put together. The base has grown 47.3 percent since the start of the year, from 463,071, and every PSX investors record set this autumn has been set by a wider public, not by bigger institutions.
The institutions behind the market are putting money behind the trend. A Capital Market Development Fund, set up by the exchange, the Central Depository Company and partner institutions with an initial contribution of Rs120 million, is funding financial literacy and retail participation work. The surge in accounts has also run alongside a powerful market: our separate report on the KSE-100 rally that carried the index past 175,000 looks at the share price side of the same story.
The SECP’s stated ambition is to grow the investor base to 2.5 million, and its chairman, Dr Kabir Ahmed Sidhu, has said that simplifying access while protecting investors’ rights is the regulator’s priority. One note of care is due for the thousands opening a first account this month: a record breaking crowd is a healthy sign for the market, but new investors are still best served by money they will not need in a hurry, and by learning before they leap. More market and business stories are collected on our Pakistani Startups and Business Success page.
Sources
- Business Recorder, stock market investor base expands by 47.3 percent in 10 months
- The News, PSX investor base grows 47.3 percent in 10 months
- Arab News Pakistan
- Featured image: Visitors and staff on the floor of the Karachi Stock Exchange beneath the big trading board (file photo) (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
- In-body image: The bull statue outside the Islamabad Stock Exchange (file photo) (Danish47, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Umar Farooq is the founder and editor of Good News Pakistan. An engineer by profession and a writer by passion, he started the site in December 2022 to share good news from Pakistan, and has since written and edited more than 200 articles about its people, sports, science, business and world records. He believes the story of Pakistan is bigger than its headlines, and that good news, told honestly, is worth telling every day.