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NEW DELHI: The nightmare on Dalal Street is not restricted to small investors alone.
The bears have mauled the high and the mighty as well.
Billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s Rs 6,500 crore stock bet Titan has just slipped into the bear market territory, as suggested by a 20 per cent fall from its 52-week high.
Lupin, where the Big Bull holds Rs 400 crore worth of shares, also in the bear grip, and as are over a dozen of his portfolio stocks.
Many of Jhunjhunwala stocks have fallen 20 per cent to 80 per cent from their respective one-year high levels.
Midcap and smallcap stocks are floundering, with the rapid spread of coronavirus and government controls to contain it stoking fears of a global recession.
Even the safest Jhunjhunwala bets have fallen apart in this mayhem.
On Thursday, Titan plunged 10 per cent to hit a low of Rs 1,069.
At this level, the stock was off 25 per cent from its 52-week high of Rs 1,389, thus entering bear market.
Lupin has plunged 32 per cent from its 52-week high.
Jhunjhunwala still owns Rs 417 crore worth of stake in the drugmaker.
At Thursday’s low of Rs 335, VIP Industries – another Jhunjhunwala favourite -- has fallen 35 per cent from its one-year high.
This has eroded the market value of Jhunjhunwala’s holding in the luggage maker to Rs 170 crore from over Rs 300 crore within a few months.
The day saw India’s equity benchmarks log their worst-ever intra-day fall in absolute terms.
Both the indices are now in the bear territory.
“During the 2008 crisis, we knew what was causing it.
We probably knew that a couple of steps like liquidity infusion in the system could help us tide over the crisis.
But no one understands this virus crisis.
We do not know to what level can it scale up,” said Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder - CIO at Zerodha.
Hemang Jani of Sharekhan said he has seen similar panic in the past, when the market had fallen 16-18 per cent.
The pace at which the market is falling these days cannot continue, he said.
“Over the next few days, somewhere, it will definitely stop falling as and when people start getting some comfort.
Till the time we see global uncertainty, people should not take comfort in the fact that crude oil prices are down or the government is going to come up with some stimulus,” Jani said.
Among other Jhunjhunwala’s portfolio stocks such as Man Infra, Bilcare, Aptech, TV18 Broadcast, Delta Corp, Geojit Financial Services and Prozone Intu Properties are all the bear market.
The Mandhana Retail Ventures, DB Realty, Autoline Industries and NCC have been the worst hit in the Jhunjhunwala portfolio, having lost 70-85 per cent from their one-year highs.
