Is Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s Love For Titan Ebbing?

Billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has sold 1.25 crore shares of one of his favourite stocks – Titan Company Ltd. – over the last one month. That reduces his stake in the watch-to-jewellery maker to its lowest level in almost a decade.

Jhunjhunwala and his associate firms reduced stake by 1.4 percent between May 22 and June 28, according to disclosures made to the stock exchanges. Their current shareholding now stands at 7.37 percent, the least Jhunjhunwala has held in the Tata Group firm since at least 2007. The disclosure made on the exchanges today provides data only since 2007.

Titan has had a topsy-turvy year and is down 2.54 percent so far in 2018. The stock tumbled towards the end of January – when the Indian equity markets saw a steep sell-off – and then recovered to touch an all-time high in March. It's been correcting since then.

Jhunjhunwala has been a vocal backer of Titan, saying the stock price reflects the strong consumption demand in India. “One may sit tight on Titan Industries. I have full confidence in the stock for the long term,” he had told CNBC-TV18 in an interview in 2013. “The fact is that one cannot curb good consumption in India.”

And it has been a successful bet for him too. The stock has generated a return of 1,833 percent for him between 2007 and 2018. During this time, he reduced his holding by about 2.67 percent.

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