Groww, Zerodha open U.S. stock trading to Indian retail investors as domestic market lags

Groww, which accounts for more than 29% of India’s 46 million active investors across stock brokerages, rolled out U.S. equity trading earlier this month, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder Harsh Jain told CNBC. The platform offers access to more than 10,000 U.S. stocks, exchange-traded funds and fractional share ownership, he said. Nvidia, SpaceX, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Micron and Meta are the most popular names among early users, Jain said.

Zerodha, which holds a 15% share of active clients according to NSE data, has started beta testing U.S. stock access and plans to launch in a few weeks, the company told CNBC. Angel One, a brokerage with 6.7 million active retail clients, is also reportedly planning to launch U.S. stock trading.

Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Singapore CEO and director Nitin Jain told CNBC there is “big interest” among Indians in U.S. stocks, especially technology companies, adding that “retail investors like whatever goes up.” He pointed to the frenzy among Indian investors for crypto a few years earlier.

Zerodha Vice President of Corporate Development Somnath Mukherjee told CNBC there has “always been latent demand” in India for investing in global companies. He cited the underperformance of the Indian stock market over the past few years and the lack of local artificial intelligence champions as drivers of demand for U.S. offerings. The depreciation of the rupee against the dollar is also pushing investors “to keep a part of their portfolio in another currency,” he said.

India’s benchmark Nifty 50 index has fallen nearly 13% since the start of the year, while the S&P 500 has gained more than 12%, according to CNBC. Foreign investors have pulled a record $32.5 billion from Indian direct equities since January, data from Indian depository NSDL showed, pressuring the stock market. With no major AI company and relatively expensive valuations, investors have chosen markets such as South Korea and Taiwan over India, experts said.

In August, resident Indians sent more than $321 million overseas to invest in equity and debt, up 111% from a year earlier, according to Indian central bank data cited by CNBC. In the financial year ended March 2026, outward remittances for equity and debt investments stood at $2.6 billion.

Tanvi Kanchan, associate director and head of international business and strategy at Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers, said retail outflows are a small fraction of India’s currency reserves, but the concern is that they rise when the rupee is weak and U.S. markets look strong, which could “amplify pressure at the worst moment.” Investment now accounts for about 11.7% of total outward remittances, up from 5.8% a year earlier, she said.

The exit of foreign investors and rising energy bills due to the Iran war have already hit the Indian currency, prompting the central bank to step in, CNBC reported. Kotak’s Jain cautioned that as participation increases, the Indian regulator could have “second thoughts” about allowing retail access to U.S. markets.