A research report published by Winvesta, a tech platform aimed at Indians investing in global markets, has listed the most popular stocks and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) among its users. The "Winvesta Investor Pulse Report" list is dominated by Tesla, Nio (a Chinese electric vehicle company) and Riot Blockchain Inc, a bitcoin miner. The most popular bunch of US stocks, called FAANGs, which include Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet (formerly known as Google), make up only 17% of the total stock investments on Winvesta's platform.
“This ratio has been trending downwards since the beginning of last year as other high growth stocks such as Tesla, Nio, and Riot took the lead from the tech giants. Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft continue to be among the top 10 popular stocks on the platform," said the study.
Interestingly, passive investments are gaining interest among Indian investors. Around 25% of the investments are in ETFs, with the ETFs such as Invesco Nasdaq ETF, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index and SPDR S&P 500 ETF leading the pack.
Swastik Nigam, founder and chief executive officer, Winvesta, said, "While launching Winvesta, we observed a strong home bias among Indian investors, which disallows participation in global growth stories. Our objective behind starting Winvesta was to make Indian investors realize the importance of geographical diversification and facilitate seamless overseas investments. In a way, the pandemic was an eye-opener for many because when Indian markets were not performing well, investors realized the value of investing in overseas markets. We have received tremendous interest from Indian investors to invest in US stocks and ETFs. Today, an average account size of an investor on Winvesta's platform is about $5,000, with an average transaction of about $800. Investors are aware of the benefits of a well-diversified portfolio, and going ahead, we are confident of gaining more traction from Indian investors."
In the last one year, Indian investors diversified their investments to electric vehicles and blockchain sectors while technology stocks continued to be preferred in the US markets, showed the study by Winvesta.
The report studied investment behaviour among Indians collected from investors on the Winvesta platform between 27 March 2020 and 20 March 2021. The investors are 18-70 years old, living in tier-I and tier-II cities.
Indians are allowed to invest up to $250,000 per year in overseas markets under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS) of the RBI. However remittances above Rs7 lakh face a 5% tax collection at source (TCS) by the remitting bank or forex dealer. This TCS can be set off against other taxes due from the investor or it can be claimed back as a refund if no tax is actually due from the investor.
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