1.1. Ram Viswamitra|| Link|November 18, 2015 12:25:39 AM
NRIs in USA are eligible to invest in Indian stock markets. The only constraint is that there are very few brokerage houses - in fact very very few - that accept business from USA based NRIs.
Thanks for all the information. Very good article. I want to know which are these brokerage firms that offer NRI trading from USA & Canada. Is it legal thing to do or they are working around it?
NRI's from across the world are eligible to invest/trade in India Stock Market (except intraday trading in equity). NRI's from US, UK, Canada or the Middle East can open NRI trading account.
Problem: Banks like ICICI doesn't allow NRI's to open a 3-in-1 account from outside India. This is because of their interpretation of an RBI law.
Solution: 1. You still can open a trading account with other brokers like ProStocks, TradePlus, Zerodha, and Sharekhan. You just need NRE or NRO account with a bank. 2. If you are keen to open an ICICI Bank 3-in-1 NRI Trading Account, you could do that in your next visit to India. ICICI allows opening the NRI trading account if you are in India and sign the forms in India. Once opened, you could trade online from anywhere.
Note that even though you have an NRI Trading Account with ICICI, you cannot invest in Mutual Funds or IPO 'online'. They allow you to do this when you are in India.