Rakesh Jhunjhunwala not immune to weak market sentiment; lost Rs 500 crore in three stocks this week

Even big bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was not immune to losses on Dalal Street this week as benchmark indices fell nearly 2% each. The billionaire investor lost Rs 506 crore in just three stocks, including his favourite Titan Company Limited. The other two stocks that contributed to this loss were Tata Motors and Escorts. In the holiday-shortened week, Sensex and Nifty fell on three out of four trading sessions resulting as indices continued to remain range-bound amid rising coronavirus cases across the country and increased movement restrictions.

The heaviest loss, suffered by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala this week was in his most famous bets, Titan Company Limited. The ace investors, along with his wife Rekha Jhunjhunwala, holds 4.49 crore equity shares of the company or a 5.1% stake. The share price of Titan recorded a 5.23% fall this week. With this, the value of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s holding in the firm went down from Rs 6,955 crore at the end of the previous week to Rs 6,591 crore on Friday’s closing bell. This translated into a loss of roughly Rs 364 crore for the big bull.

Another Tata group firm, Tata Motors was also seen pulling Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s wealth lower this week. The share price of Tata Motors fell 5.42% this week, settling at Rs 293 per share on a closing basis. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala invested in Tata Motors last fiscal year, picking up a 1.3% stake or 4.27 crore shares. The value of his holding was at  Rs 1,325 crore on April 16. At the end of this week, the same was down at Rs 1,252 crore — a loss of Rs 73 crore in just one week.

Lastly, it was Escorts that was contributing to big bulls losses. The share price of Escorts tanked 8.7% this week to close at Rs 1,138 per share. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s 4.8% stake or 69 lakh shares of Escorts were valued at Rs 728 crore on Friday’s closing, down Rs 69 crore from the previous week, when the value of his holding was Rs 798 crore.

However, it was not all doom and gloom for the ace investor. Among his multiple bets, some have even helped him make a profit during the week. Jubilant Pharmova, where the Jhunjhunwala’s own over 1 crore shares, jumped 9.8% this week helping the big bull earn a profit of Rs 72 crore. Fortis Healthcare was also seen surging higher, translating into a profit of Rs 11.88 crore for Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. One of the most recent of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala unlisted bets that entered the bourses, Nazara Technologies has also zoomed this week resulting in the big bull making a profit of Rs 24.7 crore.