Rakesh Jhunjhunwala birthday: From Rs 5,000 investment to now Rs 34,000 cr; journey from ‘bear’ to ‘big bull’

Big bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala celebrates his 61st birthday on July 5, 2021. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, referred to as India’s own Warren Buffet, was born to an Indian Tax officer in a middle class family. The ace investor started trading in the stock market in 1985, when in college. BSE Sensex was around 150 points at the time; and he began investing with Rs 5,000 as capital. According to Forbes, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s net worth now stands at $4.6 billion (Rs 34,387 crore), as of 3 July 2021. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s first big win was Tata Tea, where he made a profit of Rs 5 lakh in 1986. He bought 5,000 shares of Tata Tea at a price of Rs 43, which zoomed to Rs 143 apiece within just three months, more than tripling his invested money.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala: Big bull was once a bear

The big bull was once a bear in the Harshad Mehta days, and made a lot of money by shorting stocks post Harshad Mehta Scam 1992. In a video interview, Jhunjhunwala admitted making a lot of money short selling, as he was part of the bear cartel. In 1990’s, Indian stock market was dominated by established cartels. One such bear cartel was led by Manu Manek, known as Black Cobra, with followers including Radha Krishan Damani and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, among others. Journalist Sucheta Dalal reported the Harshad Mehta scam of 1992, following which the stock market crashed.

RARE Enterprises: ‘Ra’ from Rakesh, ‘Re’ from Rekha

In 1987, Rakesh Radheshyam Jhunjhunwala married Rekha Jhunjhunwala from Andheri, who is also a stock market investor. In 2003, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala established his own stock trading firm Rare Enterprises, known to derive its name from first two initials of his and his wife Rekha’s names — ‘Ra’ from Rakesh; ‘Re’ from Rekha.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala holds 37 stocks worth nearly Rs 20,000 crore

At the end of quarter ended March 31, 2021, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and associates publicly hold 37 stocks including Titan Company, Tata Motors, Crisil, Lupin, Fortis Healthcare, Nazara Technologies, Federal Bank, Delta Corp, DB Realty and Tata Communications, with a net worth of Rs 19,695.3 crore, according to data by Trendlyne. His most valuable listed holding is watch and jewellery maker Titan Company, with holding value at Rs 7,879 crore; followed by Tata Motors with Rs 1,474.4 crore; and Crisil at Rs 1,063.2 crore.

Big bull ‘extremely’ bullish on banking sector

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is extremely bullish on the banking sector, including the so-called inefficient banks. In a recent TV interview, Jhunjhunwala said that the inefficient banks have very high cost-income ratios, which will fall dramatically. He also expects India to grow at 14-15 per cent nominal GDP this year and 10-12 per cent nominal GDP over the coming years. The big bull also said that his bullish views on India are based on structural changes that have taken place over the last few years in the country. He hailed the digitisation initiatives amid COVID-19 pandemic, which facilitated the ‘work from home’ set up.

Jhunjhunwala doesn’t see any COVID-19 wave coming that may impact Indian share markets. “Wave or no wave, Indian economy is much better prepared to face this kind of crisis,” he said. He also advised investors to stay cautious in markets and said that even if there is a third wave, markets are already discounting it.