CHENNAI: With more and more Indians chasing US stocks amid the coronavirus-led market turmoil, fintech firms that help investors navigate these trades are making the most of this opportunity. One such
company is Stockal Inc — a global investment platform for Indian investors, which has witnessed a 300 per cent growth in the number of customers in the last few months.
“We have added at least 2,000 new accounts in February and the figure has now surged to 6,000 a month. In terms of trade, the growth is even more. In March on a daily basis, we were doing transactions worth Rs 2.5-3 crore. Post Covid-19 outbreak, this value has increased to Rs 12-14 crore,” said Sitashwa Srivastava ,co-founder and CEO of Stockal Inc.
Srivastava added that the reasons for the rise in inclination of Indians towards overseas stock markets are manifold: Unstable stock market at home, declining rate of interest, pent up demand as investors were looking for opportunity to diversify their investments geographically, good returns provided by the US capital market and even availability of homegrown digital investment platforms which have made
investing in the US market easy and accessible.
“One can invest in companies like Google, Tesla and Netflix which are not listed in Indian stock market. Besides, the US market gives stable and even generous returns at lower volatility,” said Vinay Bharathwaj, co-founder and executive chairman, Stockal Inc.
He added that the declining value of rupee and rising dollar value have also pushed more Indians to put their money into US markets. Indians who have plans to travel to the US for academics or jobs are, in fact, seen starting to save early by making investments in the US markets.
Recently, Stockal has entered into partnership with HDFC Securities to make global investing more accessible to Indian investors. Enthused by the overwhelming response of investors in the overseas market, the company aims to enter at least ten new markets by August this year.
Bharathwaj added that their company has also managed to grab the attention of investors who had to rely on offline mediums or international digital investment platforms, which were usually more expensive in terms of brokerage fees to invest in overseas markets. Stockal also operates in markets like the Middle East, Indonesia and Malaysia.