Mumbai: Stock turnover in India’s cash market hit a 22-month high in August, reflecting the impact of a broad-based rally that drew in many fence sitters. Multiple block deals and a raft of mid-sized public offerings also garnered funds from savers, boosting trade volumes.The combined average daily cash market turnover on the NSE and the competing BSE was Rs 83,693 crore in August, the highest since October 2021.The average cash market turnover in July was Rs 77,337; in June and May, they were Rs 67,491 crore and Rs 63,774 crore, respectively. The August turnover was 59% more than March’s or 48% higher than December last year. Delivery percentage was 56.9% in August in terms of value traded on BSE, compared with 50.7% in July.”Smallcap and Midcap indices kept making new highs during August, attracting retail and high net worth individual investors to either participate in the uprun or churn their previously bought portfolio,” said Dhiraj Relli, MD & CEO, HDFC Securities. “This also included bulk deals where some promoters or early investors sold a part of their stake.”Nifty declined nearly 3% in August, while the broader market sharply outperformed. Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap100 rallied 4% and 5%, respectively. Large block deals with strong institutional participation also increased the trading volumes on the bourses, said market participants.”Institutional activity picked up materially in August, after the quarterly results season, while a lot of blocks got traded, providing liquidity opportunities for both FIIs and DIIs,” said R Venkataraman, chairman of IIFL Securities. “The pre-election excitement is already evident, given the wide spectrum of sectors investors are interested in.”Around 15-20 companies saw large block deals getting executed over the last 2-3 weeks, including names like Zomato, Paytm, Coforge, and Jio Financial, among many others.Two Adani Power promoter entities sold shares worth 8,710 crore to US-based investment firm GQG Partners. Similarly, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma-owned AntFin sold 3.58% stake in Paytm for 2,031 crore.“Increasing participation in the broader market, along with several successful midcap IPOs and a lot of the large block deals that got executed in the market during the month, led to the surge in cash volumes,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head of research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services. “Even increased IPO activity along with new investors rushing to open demat accounts led to a spurt in volume.”A record number of 3 million new demat accounts were opened in July 2023, which was the highest since January 2022. August saw seven mainboard IPOs raising capital to the tune of 4,760 crore.