“The mother of all bull markets is upon us,” says Rajendran V., investment evangelist and chairman and managing director of city-based Capstocks, a financial services company celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Brimming with enthusiasm, he proceeds to pull up several spread sheets and power point presentations on his computer in an attempt to illustrate the statement.
Clicking from slide to slide he explains about Sensex earnings for the past 10 years, the Union Budget, automobile sales in the second quarter, the Prime Minister’s recent visit to the United States and so on, all of which, apparently, has had an impact on the stock market.
“It’s simple mathematics,” he says. “A blind investment of Rs.100 in the Bombay Stock Exchange in the base year of 1979 is today worth Rs.27,000. Now, compare that to Kerala’s two favourite investment options – fixed deposits and gold; figures show that in the same time period, the same amount deposited in fixed deposits, even with a high rate of interest of 10 per cent, is worth only Rs.3,175 today and that same amount invested in gold is worth only Rs.2,600.”
Rajendran, a mechanical engineer who graduated from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, says he fell into navigating the stock market “by chance and not by choice”. He actually started off his career as an assistant engineer at the Hindustan Paper Corporation’s Nagaon Paper Mill in Assam.
“It was my brother, Balachandran, who pointed me in the direction of the stock market. I was a total novice in the field, having never even seen a share certificate! In fact, I had no idea what stock markets were or, for that matter, what stock exchanges were for. I began as a sub-broker in 1989, with zero capital, working out of the back office of the family business, armed with only a telephone. In those days, a broker or a sub-broker used to deal with clients directly: I used to take orders, give confirmation, and pass on market information. My first clients were my brother’s colleagues,” recalls the 49-year-old.
Over the years Capstocks has expanded its activities and now offers trading in equities, commodities and currencies and has 33 branches all across South India, employing some 300 people, not to mention several other hundreds in its 152 franchises. But it was success earned the “hard way” as Rajendran hastens to add. “I learnt with each mistake – and there were some monumental ones. In 1992, during the Harshad Mehta stock market scam, for example, we too were caught in the fall out. But we were determined that it should not affect any of our clients. We kept our heads above water by borrowing huge sums of money to meet these commitments, which, incidentally, left me in debt by the time I was in my mid 20s.
“Then in 2000 came the Ketan Parekh scam, which again cost brokerage firms dear, followed by the global recession. All throughout, it was just a determination to succeed and sheer hard work that carried me and the company through those tough times,” says Rajendran.
Perhaps that’s why Rajendran believes in sharing his knowhow with others. For the past decade or so, on second Saturdays of every month, he has been conducting awareness seminars on investment fundamentals.
“I believe that many people want to invest but are wary of doing so. People lose money in the stock markets because of inexperience, investing without proper knowledge and information, lack of proper guidance and investing on tips, gossips, rumours and what not. One should not be in a hurry to book small profits and think of investment in the stock market with a long term perspective. Having taken the right decision he should be patient and not expect overnight returns.”
