Discount brokerage Zerodha has launched US stock investing in beta mode on its Kite platform, allowing Indian investors to buy shares of US-listed companies and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) through their existing accounts.
The offering provides access to up to 2,000 US-listed companies and around 1,000 ETFs. It also supports fractional investing, allowing users to invest in a portion of a share with investments starting at $1.
Resident Indian individuals can activate the international investing segment through Kite without opening a separate demat account and transfer funds from their linked Indian bank accounts to a dollar-denominated wallet.
Users can fund their dollar-denominated wallets through netbanking from linked accounts at supported Indian banks. UPI, debit cards, and credit cards are not supported.
Zerodha is charging brokerage of 0.1% of the trade value, subject to a minimum of $0.01 and a maximum of $10 per executed order. An 18% GST applies to brokerage.
Other charges include an IFSCA turnover fee of 0.005% on trade value, along with applicable US regulatory transaction fees on sell orders.
For currency conversion, Zerodha’s guide lists a negotiated bank markup of 0.5%-1.2% over the RBI reference exchange rate.
The service supports delivery-based investing, fractional ownership and SIPs in eligible US stocks. Intraday and margin trading are not available for international equities, and users cannot apply for US IPOs through the platform.
The service is routed through BSE’s India INX Global Access at GIFT City. The underlying US securities are held through a US brokerage partner rather than in an Indian demat account.
Brokers Expand Into US Equities
Zerodha’s launch comes after the startup, along with peers like Groww, Upstoxx and Angel One, received approval from the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) in June to offer investors the option to buy international and US stocks from GIFT City.
Following this, Groww introduced US stock investing to its customers in September, partnering with US brokerage infrastructure provider Alpaca Securities. Its platform provides access to more than 10,000 US stocks and ETFs and supports fractional investing.
Meanwhile, Upstox launched US stock investing in September, offering access to more than 8,000 US-listed stocks and over 2,000 ETFs, with fractional investments starting at $1.
Stockbrokers are diversifying their offerings beyond domestic equities amid a rising demand from Indian retail investors seeking direct exposure to international markets.
This is driven by a desire to hedge domestic concentration, access global technology megatrends like AI, cloud computing, and semiconductors, and diversify geographical risk, opening up their portfolio to top global companies like NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.
The prospect of high-profile US listings, particularly in the technology sector, including companies such as SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic, have also drawn investor attention.
Zerodha and Groww have joined existing providers such as INDmoney and HDFC Securities in providing US investing.
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