GameStop’s Wild Ride Has Indian Retail Traders Joining In
India’s day traders are strapping in for the GameStop ride that’s taken equity markets by storm.
(Bloomberg) -- India’s day traders are strapping in for the GameStop Corp. ride that’s taken equity markets by storm.
The videogame retailer was among the five most-traded names over the past week on Stockal, a platform for Indian retail investors to trade U.S. equities. GameStop accounted for about 15% of all trades on the platform, Sitashwa Srivastava, co-founder and co-chief executive officer said in an interview.
“We were not expecting Indians would be on Reddit, reading about GameStop,” Srivastava said. Unlike many of their options-heavy WallStreetBets counterparts, Indian traders aren’t allowed to take on leverage while trading foreign stocks, he said. “These are all trading in cash.”
As in other markets, with more Indians staying indoors since the pandemic struck, many have flocked to stock markets at home and abroad, leading to a surge in retail investing. According to Stockal, their favorites in the U.S. have been the likes of Tesla Inc. and Apple Inc., with Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna Inc. and Chinese electric vehicle firm Nio Inc. rising up the rankings in recent months.
At Winvesta, another platform targeting Indian individual investors, the exposure to FAANG stocks in client portfolios has dropped to an average 13%, from 18% in October, said Chief Executive Officer Swastik Nigam.
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In China, GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. were the most-traded U.S. names Wednesday on a trading app of Shenzhen-based Futu Holdings Ltd., which serves individual investors in Mainland China and Hong Kong.
‘Real Skin’
Dipe Chatterjee, a Mumbai-based marketing consultant, says he’s bought GameStop and Tesla in recent months, making a 150% return on his $1,000 investment in the games retailer earlier this week before swiftly booking profits.
“It’s a game with real skin in it,” he said.
Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum earlier briefly turned itself off amid a surge new participants. The site had racked up more than 3 million members as day traders plugged companies led by GameStop.
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