3 generations, 1 market, lots of changes

Abir Pal / TNN / Feb 7, 2006, 01:24 IST

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As the sensex breached 10K, Bagry, an 86-year old raised a toast of his favourite cuppa to a force that's shaped 3 generations of Bagry clan.

3 generations, 1 market, lots of changes

MUMBAI: For Kishan Chand Bagry, this has been an afternoon more than 50 years in the making. On Monday, as the sensex breached 10K, Bagry, a sprightly 86-year old raised a toast of his favourite cuppa to a force that's shaped three generations of the Bagry clan��Dalal Street.
Sitting beside him in their modest apartment, a stone's throw from Borivili station, granddaughter Rekha recalls how stock markets and her family have been inextricably linked.
"While most girls got toys and dresses on their birthdays and on Diwali, my sisters and I used to get blue-chip stocks," chuckles the 34-year-old.
Her father, Shree Ratan, methodically going through a handwritten inventory of his investments across the room, would have it no other way.

An early investor himself, Shree Ratan cut his teeth when barely 25 years old on 25 shares of Hindustan Lever. Today, the 62-year-old makes a comfortable living, managing his own portfolio which has swelled to more than 75 scrips andvalued anywhere upwards of Rs 75 lakh.
Formerly a textile mill supervisor, he has been a daily watcher of the ups and downs on the Bombay Stock Exchange barometer ever since it came into being 20 years ago. "The last few years have seen more changes than I could have ever dreamt about," he says.

This sentiment is echoed by patriarch Kishan Chand. When he began buying and selling shares, the Bombay Stock Exchange was nothing more than an informal band of brokers.
Blue chips meant Bombay Dyeing, Tata, Century, ACC and relationships held sway over any high-priced research. Success was all about juggling reams of paperwork, long hours in a cramped broker's office and the right tips. For granddaughter Rekha, it's about laptops, real-time trading and foreign fund flows.
Attitudes, investment philosophies, information sources, trading platforms, everything has changed. "While picking a scrip what was most important was the dividend the company paid.
A steady assured yield is what we were after rather than any appreciation in share price," says Kishan Chand, who over the years has invested close to Rs 12 lakh towards building up his portfolio. Strong and steady was the name of the game.
Rekha, 52 years his junior, not surprisingly, wants it right here, right now. Even it if means taking more risks. A chartered accountant with international audit firm PWC, for her investing is as much about short-term share 'pops' as long-term yields.
An active investor for the last nine years, she today manages a personal portfolio of close to 50 shares.
"If one is disciplined, sets realistic targets and uses stop-loss orders, the gain outweighs the risk. The trick is not to get too greedy. Once you've reached your target, book profits and bail out," she says.
This sophistication and confidence is also visible when it comes to picking companies. Much like his father, Shree Ratan relied on word of mouth and 'insider tips' when it came to deciding where to park his money.
The sub-broker executing the trade often doubled up as a sounding board and apart from a cursory rifle through company balance sheets for turnover trends, reserves and expansion plans, research was non-existent.
"I used to read The Times of India very carefully and sometimes, specialist papers like Money, but beyond that it was just gut instinct and market gossip," confesses Shree Ratan.
Daughter Rekha, in contrast, scans both financial and general newspapers, assorted websites, TV channels and brokerage reports.
She has more than a passing familiarity with technical and fundamantal analyses and in addition has a group of close friends and professional contacts with whom she swaps market news and information.
That is not to say that her calls have always been right. Stuck with a bunch of worthless 'penny stocks', she says that knowing when to sell is as important as knowing when to buy. That is luckily an issue over which the Bagry men have never lost sleep.
"Ninety nine per cent of my transactions are always buy orders. In fact, many of my shares have been kept aside for the next generation and I do not plan ever to sell them," says Shree Ratan. But then again, he had never thought that one day the sensex would touch 10,000.

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