Finance1 min read

Groww, Zerodha open US stock investing to Indians: What it means for retail investors | The risks and rewards explained

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In short

Driven by divergent market performance, Indian brokerages are rapidly adding international equities to their offerings. Groww has unlocked fractional shares and thousands of foreign assets, with Zerodha and Angel One preparing to follow suit. Meanwhile, foreign investors have pulled $32.5 billion from local equities since the start of the year as the domestic index slid nearly 13%. This persistent underperformance has pushed resident outward remittances for foreign assets up by 111% in August compared to the prior year.

Key points

  • Retail investors are seeking foreign equities to access artificial intelligence companies…: Retail investors are seeking foreign equities to access artificial intelligence companies and hedge against the falling rupee.
  • Zerodha is currently beta testing international equity features while Angel One is planni…: Zerodha is currently beta testing international equity features while Angel One is planning its own overseas trading rollout.
  • Accelerating capital outflows during periods of currency weakness may cause regulators to…: Accelerating capital outflows during periods of currency weakness may cause regulators to reconsider retail access to global markets.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Major Indian online investment platforms are opening up access to US stocks for millions of retail investors seeking to diversify into global assets as Indian markets continue to underperform.

Groww, which accounts for more than 29% of India’s 46 million active investors across stock brokerages, rolled out US equity trading earlier this month. The platform offers access to more than 10,000 US stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), along with fractional share ownership, chief operating officer and co-founder Harsh Jain told CNBC.

Nvidia, SpaceX, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Micron and Meta are among the most popular companies with early users, Jain said.

Zerodha, India’s second-largest trading platform with a 15% share of active clients, has started beta testing access to US stocks and plans to launch the feature in a few weeks, the company told CNBC. Angel One, which has 6.7 million active retail clients, is also reportedly planning to introduce US stock trading.

zerodha

“There has always been latent demand in India for investing in global companies,” Somnath Mukherjee, vice president of corporate development at Zerodha, told CNBC.

The underperformance of…

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