rakesh jhunjhunwala: Happy birthday, Big Bull! Here’s why he inspires investors all the time

From a humble beginning in 1985 to making his $4.6 billion fortune, the ace investor has always remained bullish on India’s growth story and, thus, is fondly referred to as Dalal Street’s Big Bull. He inspires millions of Indian investors, many of whom follow his every action, recommendations and advice to a tee.

In an interview with a Hindi news channel this past May, Jhunjhunwala credited his success in wealth creation to his firm belief in India’s growth potential.

Jhunjhunwala, who started off his investing journey with a measly capital of Rs 5,000, also marks his 36th year on Dalal Street this year.

Tata Group’s

is Jhunjhunwala’s biggest stock holding. The Big Bull and his better half Rekha Jhunjhunwala own 5.1 per cent stake in the jewellery maker, worth about Rs 7,900 crore as of today. The Big Bull also holds stakes in many other Tata group firms such as (Rs 1,479 crore), Rallis India (Rs 662 crore) and Tata Communications(Rs 402 crore), data publicly available with Trendlyne suggests.The marquee investor is a known admirer of Chairman N Chandrasekaran’s stewardship of the Tata Group.

Crisil (Rs 1,079 crore), Lupin (Rs 840 crore),

(Rs 807 crore) and Escorts (Rs 773 crore) are some of his other biggest bets, as per March shareholding data.

His other big investment bets over the years included , which delivered 100 times return from 1998 to 2015. He met with similar success in his bet on Bata India from 1996 to 2019. In BEL, the investor with Midas’ touch made over 90 times return from 1998 to 2007. Between 2001 and 2007, he made a whopping 700 times return on Praj Industries. Also, among his top bets was Rallis India, where he made 55 times return during the 2004-2020 period.

SCI (1,200 per cent), Crisil (200 times), Lupin (160 times) and BEML (100 times) were some of the other stocks that did wonders for Jhunjhunwala in the 2000s. In the last decade, the ace investor made solid returns in Escorts and

.

Jhunjhunwala completed his CA in 1985 but decided to jump headlong into the stock market.

“My father reacted by telling me not to ask him or any of his friends for money. He, however, told me that I could live in the house in Mumbai and that if I did not do well in the market, I could always earn my livelihood as a chartered accountant. This sense of security really drove me in life,” he told ETNOW in a 2009 interview.

In the same interview, Jhunjhunwala said he earned Rs 20-25 lakh between 1986 and 1989 by investing in Tata Power at a time when the market had gone into a big depression.

“When I was worth Rs 50-55 lakh, I bought 4 lakh shares of Sesa Goa in the forward trading, worth Rs 1 crore. I sold about 2-2.5 lakh shares at Rs 60-65 and another 1 lakh at Rs 150-175. The prices then went up to Rs 2,200 and I sold some shares. I did some other trading too. At the end, I had a net worth of about Rs 2 – 2.5 crore,” he recalled.

When Jhunjhuhnwala started investing in stocks, BSE Sensex was ruling at 150 level. Today the BSE barometer is hovering a

near 53,000 level. Often referred to as India’s own Warren Buffett, Jhunjhunwala says bull markets are Test matches, and not 50-over one-dayers.

Data for the March quarter showed he owned over 1 per cent stake in 37 stocks in a portfolio that is worth Rs 19,600 crore today. He has been holding many of his stocks for years.

Jhunjhunwala believes India is entering a new phase of growth, with a double-digit run rate this year and for the next few decades. In an interview last month, he projected corporate profits in FY22 to be 5-6 per cent of GDP. Structural changes that have taken place in the economy are coming to the fore, he said.