Mumbai, Nov. 8 -- More and more Indians are investing in equity in American and European markets and going as far as Brazil and China in their hunt for returns better than in India, data from the central bank and platforms for overseas investment shows. Underwhelming returns in India, a tepid 4.7% in the last 12 months, and underperforming earnings growth has Indian retail investors scouting for greener pastures abroad lured by the promise of higher returns. The proliferation of do-it-yourself or DIY investment routes via brokers such as Vested Finance, Borderless, Appreciate, among others, that make investing abroad easier compared to high thresholds for investing in destinations such as GIFT City, India's only operational international finance services centre. When an investor has to invest directly in global markets, he can start with installing apps of the likes of Appreciate, Vested, or Borderless, for instance. Once the KYC or know your customer verification, which is mostly digital, is done, the user's bank account is linked with the platform for setting up a liberalized remittance scheme, or LRS, account. Under this Reserve Bank of India scheme, resident Indians are allowed to send up to $250,000 abroad for purposes such as education expenses, purchase of property, investments, and other purposes. Once the LRS account is up and running, the platform creates a US stock wallet for the retail investor to which money can be transferred and trades carried out. Mint collated data from some of the top brokers who facilitate investments in global stocks and exchange traded funds for Indian investors. For Mumbai-based Appreciate Wealth, the total number of overseas trades put by Indian retail investors has increased 44% year-on-year (y-o-y) in October with the value of trades expanding much faster at 164% for the same month. The growing share of overseas equity investments, said Shlok Srivastav, founder at Appreciate Wealth, "signals a maturing investor base prioritizing global diversification, currency hedging, and access to innovation-led sectors like artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and healthcare that remain underrepresented in domestic markets." Software engineer Sidhoji Sawant, who's been investing overseas for a year now, is a case in point. "Coming from a tech background I was always interested in tech companies. And when I got to know we can buy US stocks directly, I started investing in 2024," he said. Sidhoji, who uses platforms like IND Money and India INX for his trades, currently owns shares in Nvidia, Alibaba, Intercontinental Exchange, and other global companies. Appreciate is one among the top two brokers by volumes for investing abroad; the other being Borderless. At Borderless, monthly trading volumes have more than doubled y-o-y as of October. In the first seven months of the financial year so far, Borderless has carried out trades worth over $600 million versus some $300 million for all of FY25. "Not just the US, but we are seeing a rising participation from Indian investors for Chinese and Brazilian markets also," said Sitashwa Srivastava, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Borderless. For Vested Finance, another broker in the same space, the value of trades is even bigger. This year so far, Vested, which follows a January-to-December accounting year, has carried out trades of $2 billion. Trading volume is expected to increase by 100% year-on-year in CY2025, said Viram Shah, co-founder and CEO....