There has been a 17% increase in the number of private individuals investing on the stock exchange this year, according to a survey by Kantar quoted in Thursday’s Financieele Dagblad.

Some 1.75 million households now invest in stocks and shares and this year’s increase is the biggest since the boom of the 1990s, the FD said.

The rise has been driven by the arrival of low threshold online brokers and record low interest rates, the FD said. Financial institutions have already noted the rise in investments and online broker DeGiro was forced to introduce a waiting list earlier this year.

Investor confidence has also grown since the start of the pandemic, and the Amsterdam blue chip AEX is currently some 50% up on the end of March.