Indian markets more controlled than West, says Zerodha's Nithin Kamath

Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath lauded Indian markets for their discipline after the government hiked customs duty on gold and silver to 15%. He highlighted the absence of pre-announcement volatility, contrasting it with Western market practices.

The Ministry of Finance has updated the customs duty rates for various precious metals and jewellery findings from 6 per cent to 15 per cent, which comes into effect today. However, the Gold and Silver markets did not show any unusual movements in the hours leading up to the announcement.

Zerodha CEO Hails Indian Market Integrity

Highlighting this, Nithin Kamath, Founder & CEO of Zerodha, hailed the Indian markets on Wednesday. "Just another reason why Indian markets, despite all their flaws, are far more tightly controlled in these grey zones than many Western markets," Kamath said on X. He also noted the lack of volatility or suspicious volume shifts before the official government notification became public.

"The news about import duties on gold and silver going up to 15 per cent came late last night. The interesting thing: neither open interest, prices, nor volume in Gold and Silver showed any unusual moves in the hours leading up to the announcement," Kamath said.

Source: Nithin Kamath on X (@Nithin0dha) Kamath contrasted this market discipline with the regulatory environment in the United States and other Western nations, where sensitive information often impacts markets before an official statement.

"If this had happened in the United States, I'm fairly sure some of the people close to the decision-making process would have found a way to trade it, either through regulated futures markets, other derivative contracts, or prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi," Kamath said.

The CEO gave examples of previous instances involving crude oil and the Iran conflict, where allegations surfaced regarding individuals close to government circles trading on privileged information. "It's kind of insane how casually people in power seem to monetize privileged information. At some point, this stops looking like 'market participation' and starts looking like blatant insider trading with better branding," Kamath mentioned.

Details of the Duty Hike

The Ministry of Finance raised the import duty on gold and silver from 6 per cent to 15 per cent, while platinum will now attract a duty of 15.4 per cent, up from 6.4 per cent. The changes also apply to related items such as gold and silver dore, coins, and findings. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)