Jhunjhunwala is famous for having made a career out of dabbling in stocks and spotting multi-baggers much earlier than other trade pundits
Every second stock where 'big bull' Rakesh Jhunjhunwala holds over 1% stake has beaten Sensex's 29% gain this year.
What's more, one in every five holdings has vaulted by over 100% with two stocks, in fact, zooming by more than 200% each, shows a DNA Money analysis.
Son of an income tax officer, Jhunjhunwala is famous for having made a career out of dabbling in stocks and spotting multi-baggers much earlier than other trade pundits.
The market maverick makes investments in his name or wife Rekha's name and through corporate entities like RARE Enterprises, and the combined Jhunjhunwala holding in 33 stocks is currently valued at over Rs 13,000 crore or $2 billion.
He could be holding shares in other companies as well but data on them is difficult to come by as Jhunjhunwala holds less than 1% equity as a public shareholder in them.
At the end of September 2017 quarter, the ace investor's five biggest holdings are in Titan (Rs 4,720 crore), Lupin (Rs 896 crore), Escorts (Rs 812 crore), Crisil (Rs 717 crore) and Dewan Housing Finance (Rs 665 crore). In the just-concluded quarter, Jhunjhunwala reduced exposure in Titan by 17.70 lakh shares while pharma giant Lupin saw the influential investor upping stake with purchase of 5.8 lakh shares; the rest three top-holdings did not see any change.
Other stocks where he seemed to have reduced shareholding include Rallis India, Federal Bank, TV18 Broadcast, Firstsource, Viceroy Hotels, and Jaiprakash Associates. In Federal Bank, Jhunjhunwala cut his exposure by 61.48 lakh shares to below 2% amid a solid rally in banking shares. In case of TV18 Broadcast, Rakesh and Rekha together held 4.45 crore shares at the end of June 2017 but only Rekha's name figures in the list of shareholders owning more than 1% by September-end.
"He is betting big on consumption and financialisation of savings. Pharma is a sector where he has a lot of interest given that there have been steep price drops in shares of generic firms operating in the US market," said a Mumbai-based top broker who knows Jhunjhunwala.
DNA Money could not contact Jhunjhunwala for comments.
On the other end of the spectrum, Jhunjhunwala -- a qualified CA -- seemed to have upped his interest in Karur Vysya Bank and Prakash Industries. The investment legend created a meaningful position in beaten-down Fortis Healthcare, where he holds 80 lakh shares at the end of September 2017.
Known for making money in stocks by just sitting on them, Jhunjhunwala, in as many as 21 stocks including Delta Corp (up 141% year to date), Geojit (up 276%), Edelweiss (up 189%) and VIP Industries (up 149%), did not tinker with his holdings in the September quarter.
"Rakesh meets with promoters of investee companies sometimes to understand how specific situations will play out. He is extremely bullish on Indian equities but does not chase momentum stocks. You can think of him as a value investor, which is why he has often picked up bets in stocks that are not darlings of the market," said the chairman of a company where Jhunjhunwala holds stake.
In terms of stock price movement, Jhunjhunwala's bets on Geojit and Prakash Industries have given stupendous returns. Geojit stock price has jumped 276% YTD and Prakash Industries has zoomed by over 227%.
In five stocks like Edelweiss, Dewan Housing, Escorts, VIP Industries, and Delta Corp, the pied piper of Indian bourses has become richer by 140-190%.
As many as nine Jhunjhunwala holdings including Titan, Aptech (where Jhunjhunwala is a promoter), Prozone Intu Properties, Ion Exchange, Man Infra, Autoline Industries and Anant Raj have seen year-to-date gains in 50-100% range.
Given that investing is not a zero-error profession, some of Jhunjhunwala's bets such as Lupin, Viceroy Hotels, MCX, Crisil, Bilcare and The Mandhana Retail Ventures have not delivered returns in 2017 so far.
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Other stocks where he seemed to have reduced shareholding include Rallis India, Federal Bank, TV18 Broadcast, Firstsource, Viceroy Hotels, and Jaiprakash Associates. In Federal Bank, Jhunjhunwala cut his exposure by 61.48 lakh shares to below 2% amid a solid rally in banking shares. In case of TV18 Broadcast, Rakesh and Rekha together held 4.45 crore shares at the end of June 2017 but only Rekha's name figures in the list of shareholders owning more than 1% by September-end.
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