Tech stocks remain investor favorites in US market, Index ETFs gaining traction among Indian investors: Vested Finance

Mumbai, July 14, 2022: Vested Finance, a leading US investment platform, that enables Indian investors to invest in the US stock markets, witnessed trading volumes grow by 22% in Q2 2022 as compared to Q1 2022. Investors continued to be net buyers with buy volume 2X of sell volumes, during the same period.

Tesla, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Twitter were the top stocks traded on the Vested platform. While investing in the top tech stocks has been popular, investors have also taken the ETF route, especially index ETFs, to diversify their portfolios and get exposure to the US markets. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) which tracks the S&P 500 index, and the Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ) which tracks the Nasdaq-100, are among the top ETFs traded on the platform.

In March 2022, Vested launched Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Vests which lets users create their own portfolios and invest in them. By the end of the June quarter, about 7,000 users had created over 11,000 DIY Vests on the platform.

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF which enables investors to get exposure to Bitcoin, saw a 33% increase in buying volumes in Q2 2022 as compared to Q1 2022 after the 30% tax on crypto gains came into effect on 1 April.

Now, Vested premium users can also get indirect exposure to crypto-assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and others through investing in Grayscale securities. Through Grayscale, the largest digital asset manager in the world, getting exposure to cryptocurrency is just like buying a US stock. When investors choose this route for crypto exposure, they do not have to pay a flat 30% tax on their crypto gains and are taxed according to their capital gains tax. Also, investors are not subject to the 1% TDS when they sell their holdings. More than Rs 1 crore has been invested in Grayscale products till date through the Vested platform.

Viram Shah, CEO and Co-Founder, Vested Finance said, “The US markets have been volatile in the past few months, due to the Fed hiking interest rates, high inflation and the uncertainty due to Russia-Ukraine crisis. We have also seen a massive sell-off in tech stocks. However, that has meant that many of the Big Tech stocks are now available at better valuations and investors are buying into the dip. Also, index ETFs are a low-cost way to get exposure to the markets and are a favorite with long-term investors. User interest in creating and investing in DIY Vests shows that Indian investors have matured considerably when it comes to investing in the US markets and are able to do their own research and create their own portfolios. We are also excited to provide our users an alternative tax-efficient way to get exposure to crypto-assets and we have seen a steady uptick in investor interest on our platform.”

The users of Vested Finance are spread all over the country with Mumbai (10%), Bangalore (9%), Pune (5%) & Hyderabad (4%) being the top 4 cities.