Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was the pied piper of Indian capital markets, says Ramesh Damani

India's veteran investor, stock market guru, and the titan of Dalal Street, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, passed away on Sunday, August 14 after suffering a cardiac arrest.

In the last three decades Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, with his trading wit and investing sense, was a towering presence in the Indian stock markets.

His larger than life persona and outspokeness will be missed by not only those affiliated with the markets but people from all walks of life.

Remembering Jhunjhunwala, Ramesh Damani, Member of BSE, said, “Rakesh Jhunjhunwala captured the imagination of the Indian public. He was in many ways the pied piper of Indian capital markets and was extremely bullish on India. His monuments in the financial world like Ashoka University, Akasa Airlines etc are all around us.”

Damani added that Jhunjhunwala was the only man other than Warren Buffet who became a billionaire through stock market investing.

“Rakesh started with the journey of stock markets with Rs 5,000 which in the mid-1980s was a princely sum of $500. Over the next 35 years he translated that sum to almost $4 billion or Rs 30,000 crore. If you look at the compounding ratio, it is almost 50 percent compounded in dollar terms. So other than Waren Buffet, Rakesh is the only man who has become a billionaire through stock market investing and that too in an emerging market and in dollar terms,” he said.

Alchemy Capital’s Hiren Ved said Jhunjhunwala’s big picture thinking and his ability to call the markets was unparalleled.

“You either have great speculators or you have great investors, but Rakesh was one of those rare individuals who could compartmentalise trading and investment separately. As an investor he held stocks for decades together but at the same time he was always glued on to his screen. For him every tick of the market was like the heartbeat. I think his big picture thinking and his ability to call markets was unparalleled.”