Sweet Revenge
December 30, 2012 2 Comments
April 30, 1982. Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani became famous this afternoon. However he had no inkling of this when he woke up that morning. The only emotion he perhaps felt that hot summer morning, as the mercury crossed the 33 C mark, was wrath. For the past six weeks, a syndicate of stockbrokers had been hammering his company’s shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange,and he didn’t like it.
April 30 was a Friday, the day he could vent his anger, take his revenge. On the BSE, alternate Fridays were settlement days when all transactions which had taken place the previous fortnight were cleared.Sellers delivered shares to buyers, buyers accepted delivery, or either party asked for the transaction to be postponed to the next clearance day after paying badla or compensation for the delay. This day was one of the settlement Fridays. It would go down in the BSE’s history as a day of total chaos.
The stage for this drama was set a few days earlier, on March 18, when a selling hysteria shocked the BSE. In twenty-five minutes of panic, starting at 1.35. p.m. the price of blue-chips like Century and Tisco crashed by ten per cent. They fell like dominoes on the back of Ambani’s Reliance Textile Industries which fell from Rs 131 to Rs 121 as 350,000 of its shares hit the market. Read more of this post
Below is a favourite but somewhat dated Rakesh Jhunjhunwala interview.I frequently revisit the article to read about how he started out.Every time I wonder how I might be able to do what I want to do with so few resources,I find reading his story inspiring.Also I like his way of limiting risk,dealing with loss , having flexible targets and dealing with unfavourable opinions.The red ink is mine.It’s to highlight the parts I find interesting.As a side note,I also like reading the account of the 1993 blasts,if for no other reason than to remind myself about the spirit of Mumbai and the grit of all Mumbaikars. 
wealthymatters 