NEW DELHI: The recent bloodbath in the domestic stocks has hurt small investors as hard as the countrys top billionaires.
The across-the-board selloff eroded market capitalisation of many bluechips, resulting in notional losses in the value of promoter stakes.
Mukesh Ambani, who owns oil-to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries, has $50.7 billion in wealth as of August 28, a day before the BSE Sensex hit an all-time high of 38,989.65 on August 29. He is now worth $39.5 billion, the Bloomberg Billionaire index shows.
The owner of the worlds largest oil refining hub at Jamnagar has lost all the gains he made so far this year on the surging shares of Reliance Industries, the second-most valued stock in India. The scrip has corrected 20 per cent (till Friday) from its all-time high of Rs 1,328.75 (hit on August 29). On Monday, RIL shares saw a 5 per cent rebound to trade at Rs 1,098 on BSE at 1300 hours.
Another group stock, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, has lost 40 per cent of its market capitalisation (m-cap) so far this year. Year-to-date, Ambani's wealth has shrunken by $750-odd billions.
Kuma Mangalam Birla, who owns the Aditya Birla group, saw eight group companies erode nearly Rs 60,000 crore in market value. Six of the eight listed stocks have declined up to 70 per cent this calendar, data available with Ace Equity suggests. Vodafone Idea (Rs 23,000 crore), Grasim Industries (Rs 16,000) and UltraTech Cement (Rs 14,000 crore) have been the biggest wealth destroyers. On Monday, Birla's wealth stood at $5.91 billion, against a high of $9.38 billion hit in January. Year-to-date, he has lost $3.16 billion.
Gautam Adani, whose Adani Group has interests in ports, logistics, shipping and rail, coal mining and management and energy, with renewable and, thermal power generation and transmission and agro commodities, has taken a $3.8 billion hit year-to-date, data showed.
Adani was worth over $11 billion in earlier in January. On Monday, he was worth $6.57 billion.
Among five of the groups listed stocks, four – namely Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Adani Power and Adani Transmission – have lost Rs 40,494 crore in combined market value this calendar. Adani Green, the renewable energy business, on Monday traded at Rs 32, marginally higher than its June 2018 listing price of Rs 30.
Vikram Lal of Eicher Motors, known for iconic motorbike brand Royal Enfield, has lost $2.63 billion from his networth so far this year to $4.24 billion. Eicher Motors shares are down 28 per cent year-to-date, but traded with solid gains on Monday.
Wipros Azim Premji, steel tycoon and ArcelorMittal owner Lakshmi Mittal, Sun Pharmas Dilip Shanghvi and Shree Cements Benu Gopal Bangur have seen wealth erosion of $1-2 billion erosion in 2018.
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