Disgusted by Investment Bankers

I am finance professional with aspiration to become a significant investment banker in the global market. So with the same motive I do keep a close watch on capital markets & respected Investment Bankers of India & world. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is considered to be Indian version of Warren Buffet & a highly respectable Investment Banker, or so I used to think before today.

The reason the title of the article reads the way it is is that I watched his interview on CNBC TV18 today. Refer this link to get a brief of what he said. I should make a disclosure before I say anything further, I Really used to adore him till today. But in this interview all he was doing is to show that he knows how to count & he knows the technical levels of Nifty. He uttered all possible numbers in the span of 10 minutes or so. Thank god he stopped short of saying that Nifty could see a level of 1500 or may be say 8000 this year.

He said one of the scenarios could be that Nifty hits 6100 or higher then comes back to 3300-3500 & consolidates for 3-4 years at that level. Again in another question to him, he said he is really sure about the GDP growth in India & we could see a double digit GDP growth number in coming years. So now can anyone tell me if he is so sure about economy, then how on earth the scenario he mentioned is possible? To hit double digit GDP growth numbers the Nifty constituents have to grow at least by 20% y-o-y, which justifies a P/E ratio for Nifty of about 20-22 at least. Nifty current earnings are about Rs. 210 for the FY08-09. There is no negative growth in earning of Nifty as a whole. So assume 5% growth on Nifty which is the most pessimistic figure I can come to as of now. This still gives earnings for Nifty of about Rs. 221 for FY09-10 & range for Nifty would be 4400-4800 going by the history. Remember this is my most pessimistic target! So how could you justify a double digit growth for GDP from now on & still reaching levels of 3300-3500 & consolidate there for 3-4 years. There is only one sane explanation for the prediction; India would need to go through one of the worst recessions since 1991. Then may the god help us!

The only conclusion I could reach after watching the interview is that either Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has no clue where the markets would be heading (which I think is highly unlikely) or he is just trying to fool the viewers in the bright sunshine. In both cases I sincerely feel he should not be appearing on TV & expressing his opinions. Because the all the Investment bankers on Wall Street have earned very bad name for themselves in the downfall of Investment Banking as we used to know, & he should not add to the bad reputation. This is really detrimental for the people like yours truly, who aspire to be an Investment Banker & I sincerely do no wish to stand in the line of a breed that becomes most despicable after the politicians of course. So my earnest requests to Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is either guide people to right direction or just say, “I have no clue where market is heading.” or “I would not like to tell you & lose my opportunity to make money from it.”

The end result is I have lost one of my most venerable deities to cheapest level of lying & obfuscating hapless investors who are already floundering in darkness.