Indian investors are increasingly looking to invest in the US stock market, driven by FOMO and the sheer scale of American equities, according to a Business Today report. The Reserve Bank of India’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) permits each resident individual to remit up to $250,000 per financial year for overseas equity investments, making it entirely legal for residents to invest there.
"The honest case for US equities starts with a simple fact of scale," Viram Shah, CEO of Vested, told TOI. "India's a genuinely large, fast-growing economy but we are around 3.5% of global GDP but on a market-cap-weighted global index we're only about 2%. The US, by contrast, is roughly half the world's listed market value and close to 70% of the developed-market index."
Direct Routes via Liberalised Remittance Scheme
The most straightforward path is opening an account with a global brokerage platform, either through an Indian broker’s international tie-up or a foreign broker that accepts Indian residents, and remitting funds via an authorised bank under LRS. This route gives full ownership of individual US-listed shares and the flexibility to build a custom portfolio, with fractional investing widely available so even high-priced stocks can be bought in small dollar amounts, explained Tanvi Kanchan, Associate Director & Head - NRI Business, Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers Limited.
Several Indian brokerages have built this capability into their existing platforms through partnerships with US-based custodians and broker-dealers. A parallel category of purpose-built fintechs—Vested Finance, INDmoney, Stockal, and Winvesta—has grown rapidly to serve this demand, operating within RBI and SEBI guidelines and offering fractional share investing, said Thomas V Abraham, Research analyst at Mirae Asset ShareKhan.
Domestic Mutual Funds
For investors who prefer to stay entirely within the rupee ecosystem, domestically registered mutual funds offer an entry point. Several AMCs—Mirae Asset, Motilal Oswal, Franklin Templeton, and PGIM India among them—run schemes that invest in US equities, either directly or through Fund of Funds structures that hold global ETFs. This route eliminates currency remittance complexity while still providing economic exposure to US markets.
GIFT City Route
A newer and increasingly relevant avenue is NSE IFSC at GIFT City in Gandhinagar, where certain US stocks and ETFs are available for trading, according to the report.
Comparison of Investment Routes
The table below summarises the key differences:
| Route | Capital Required | Currency Exposure | Ownership | Ease of Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct LRS (Global Broker) | Any amount via LRS limit | Yes, USD | Full ownership of shares | Moderate; requires bank transfer and brokerage account |
| Indian Broker Partnerships | Any amount via LRS | Yes, USD | Full ownership through custodian | Easy; within domestic platform |
| Purpose-built Fintechs | Low, fractional shares | Yes, USD | Full ownership | Easy; app-based |
| Domestic Mutual Funds | Low, no LRS needed | No; rupee-denominated | Indirect through fund | Very easy; familiar process |
| GIFT City IFSC | Depends on platform | Yes, but in IFSC ecosystem | Direct or ETF | Newer; requires IFSC account |
Risks and Tax Implications
The report notes that while investing in US stocks offers benefits such as diversification and access to the world’s largest companies (Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon), investors must also consider risks and tax implications. However, specific tax details were not elaborated in the provided excerpt. The appeal of US equities also includes the depth and liquidity of the market, as Tanvi Kanchan highlighted: "For investors looking to diversify beyond the rupee and beyond Indian equities, the US market remains the deepest and most liquid in the world."
Indian investors now have multiple compliant avenues to access US equities, each with distinct trade-offs in terms of cost, ownership, and currency risk. Finance executives and treasury professionals evaluating cross-border investment strategies should weigh these factors against their portfolio objectives and risk tolerance.
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