Manu Manek: How did he Manipulate the market?

Introduction

Whenever one talks about the Indian stock market, people have often been reminded of the 1992 scam. In which Harshad Mehta played a significant role. Harshad Mehta makes enormous profits by manipulating the share market. He was known as the “Big Bull” of the stock market.

But what about before Harshad Mehta? In the late 1980s, the most prominent personality of the stock market was Manu Manek. He was too powerful in his fields that in these years (the late 1980s), the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) had been shut down for few days. He was known as “Black Cobra.”

After the 1992s scam, people got more desire to collect more information about Manu Manek, how did he gain his wealth from the stock market, and what was his strategy? And many other similar questions.

There are just a few data from Manu Manek on the web. We collected all of them and wrote them here to answer your questions.

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Who is Manu Manek

Let’s have a piece of quick information about his biography:

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Manu Manek was the flagship of the Indian stock market in the 1970s and 1980s. He had unparalleled influence in the stock market until Harshad Mehta came to power.

He was a legendary personality and powerful operator who dictated the market. It was impossible to become a director of a company. Without his nod, even on the day of the election, he sent the names of some directors to Companies and only listed people got elected,” Kishan Ratilal Choksey said. Kishan is the founder of K.R Choksey Shares and Securities.

Due to some sources, Manu Manek was survived by his wife and kid(s). After graduating, he started working as a stockbroker on the stock market. His occupation was like training at first, so he just gained knowledge and learned about stock market tricks in few years.

Manu Manek spent learning and not entering the market seriously made him become a professional in the stock market and impress them all with her first entry. Just because of that, after years, he became a big, famous personality of the Indian stock market/Dalal Street. 

It was said that his talent in reading and observing the market was god-gifted. In the peak days of Manu Manek, nothing got happened in the Indian stock market without his permission or knowledge. The elections list of the company’s director is strong proof of that. He also had a network of brokers who would operate on his command.

An operator in the market manipulates the prices to make personal gains. Soon Manek was getting a place among the big leagues making him an essential operator in the stock market. His appearance earned him a nickname, Black Cobra.

Manu Manek did several frauds and scams in his career. SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) in the 70s and 80s did not have any specific regulations or rules which are even near to what we have today. As a result, it gave a great opportunity to manipulators like Manu Manek and Harshad Mehta to exploit the different strategies and reach a considerable profit.

Moreover, his access to exchange officials had also increased, which meant that Manek controlled the exchange and had a significant hold on the companies. It made him the king of BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange). Manu Manek used to trade in the “Stock Cash Market” of BSE.

How did Manu Manek manipulate the market?

In the time of Manu Manek means the late 1980s, the rules and regulations of SEBI (stock exchange board of India) weren’t too strict. It was an excellent opportunity for Manu Manek and others like him.

Manek used bearish and short-selling moves to manipulate the market. But what do these strategies (bearish and short-selling) mean?

Before explaining how Manu Manek got his wealth, let’s know about the Bullish, Bear, and Short-Selling strategy.

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Bullish Move

An investment strategy in which investors gain profits from growth and improvement of the company’s performance is known as “Bullish Strategy.”

With this strategy, investors predict and analyze how and when the stock market will improve. The prices of the company’s shares will increase.

A bullish strategy is common among investors. By this strategy, they purchase the company’s shares. Whenever their share prices are low, they buy them immediately after that. Investors wait for the company to perform better. If the company performs well, so the shares price can go up, when the cost of these shares reach their peak, it’s time to sell them.

That’s how an investor earns profits in the stock market and gives rise to capital gains. This position is called a long position in the stock market.

Bearish Move

An investment strategy in which investors gain profits from prices fall in company’s shares know as the “Bearish Strategy.”

Investors predict and analyze that how and when the company’s shares prices will decrease in the future. This strategy is based on the gloomy outlook of the stock market.

Investors search for already performing companies, and the share prices are also at the top. It’s a suitable time to buy these shares. After that, they wait for share prices to fall and sell them.

That’s how an investor earns profits in the stock market. This position is called “Short Position.”

Ajay Kedia: Scame 1992

Short-Selling

In general, there are two options used in short-selling:

Suppose an investor has chosen to do short-selling of some of his shares in the stock market and shares are familiar to him. In that case, an investor can sell these shares at a higher price and wait for the prices to fall. 

Whenever the prices got decreased, investors to buy his share back but at a lower price. So, the price difference will be the profit.

The second one comes along with lending shares. In other words, If an investor wants to do a short-sell for some shares that he doesn’t own and is not familiar with them, he can do it by lending shares from someone who holds these shares. This can further be done by 

Two methods:

The first one is that the investor can use the derivative option. He can buy a put option on that stock. The derivative option wasn’t available in the early 1980s.

The second one is that the investor can ask the stockbroker to lend him some shares if the investor has a good relationship with the stockbroker.

Now, by the view of strategies that you got by reading the paragraphs above, we will explain how and when Manu Manek uses his tricks in the market.

In the words of Sevantilal Shah of Stewart and Company, “He (Manu Manek) had a natural gift of being able to detect any hollowness in the market.

Manu Manek entered the stock market after gaining enough knowledge and strategies about it. He waited for the right time to strike. When the share prices increased, Manek immediately entered the market. He did short-selling in the market, which causes increase selling pressure on the investors.

As a result of Manu Manek’s work on the stock market, the supply of shares increased, and prices fell. By doing this, the bullish investors lost their money because the prices didn’t get increase anymore. Still, bear investors earned a lot of profits.

Later, Manu Manek formed Bear Cartel, which manipulated the market to earn profits as a bear cartel.

Manu Manek and the Bear Cartel

Market management on a scale strongly influenced by prices was not possible by one person. Manu Manek realized this and formed the Bear Cartel. It was the first bear cartel in India.

The members followed Manek’s instructions, so he had to be a significant power in the market. Collaboration with the group allows Manek access to capital that was sufficient to control the entire stock market. This allowed him to dominate the market by creating fear.

In the famous web series “Scam 1992”, Manu Manek, the leading chief, and other gangsters from the bear cartel have been picturized.

These three are famously called triple R’s in the real world: Raju, Radhakrishnan Damani (RKD), and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, known as “Warren Buffett of India.” RKD is the founder of D-Mart and the 8th richest Indian, his net worth is $14.5 billion. Even Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion.

Manu Manek’s skills at reading the market trends and his friends and pupils he made and his career caused him to succeed. In addition, recent successful people in the Indian stock market have been Manu’s friends or pupils.

Nimesh Shah, Ajay Kayan, and AS Thiyagarajan are some of these people. Also, you can find them in the series “Scam 1992.”

Bear cartel reigned the market until the Harshad Mehta entered.

Bull and Bear

Manu Manek has been associated with or guided other investors who are now the “Bulls and Bears” of the current Indian stock market. Bulls and bears included the Big Bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Radha Kishan, the founder of DMart. Other investors are Shankar Sharma, Dinesh Dalmia, Ajay Kayan, Raamdeo Agrawal, and Nimesh Kampani.

Due to Economic Times, “Radha Kishan Damani, then in his late 20s, would stand at the far end from the trading ring and watch Manu Manek in action. It is evident that young Damani learned a lot by watching rafty Manek spoiling the Bull’s Party.”

Manu Manek and his group Bear Cartel made much money and conducted the marker until Harshad Mehta, a.k.a the Big Bull, took his step into the market. Harshad Mehta persuaded the banks to write their names on the cheques drawn. Harshad Mehta used to be the broker of RF deals that involved just two banks, but he also involved many banks in these deals.

He would then use the money deposited in his account to buy shares and work in the stock market. After that, he told the people that it was just because of positive sentiments and companies are undervalued. This shows that how Harshad Mehta took advantage of the loopholes in the system.

How did Harshad Mehta influence Manu Manek? 

The strategy used by Manu Manek and Harshad Mehta was different. They both crossed paths with each other several times, starting from Apollo Tyres. From 1985 till 1992, the bear cartel had huge losses because Harshad kept the demand up with his money from banks. In this way, the bear cartel couldn’t get any information about how the money came into the market. This continued until Harshad Mehta was arrested because his scam was uncovered.

“If Harshad Mehta had kept that position just for a week longer, I would have had to start begging on the streets”, Radha Kishan, the owner of the DMart, said.

After all these incidents, Manu Manek and some of the members of the bear cartel stopped trading and started investing.

Manu Manek vs. Dhirubhai Ambani

In the late 1980s, the Reliance industry was working well. Dhirubhai Ambani was one of Reliance’s investors and owned most of the shares.

The Reliance industry was performing well until Manu Manek set his eyes on it. Only a few people know about a conflict between Manu Manek and Dhirubhai Ambani in the late 1980s over Reliance shares.

Ambani used to treat his investors like his family members. “Dhirubhai Ambani had an overwhelming feeling that if investors were not happy, he could not get more money, which cause to limit his growth. So he used to treat his investors as his family members,” Choksey said. Choksey is found of K.R Choksey Shares and Securities.

By using the short-selling strategy, Manu Manek started to trade with Reliance’s shares. He underestimated Dhirubhai Ambani. Also, Ambani didn’t surrender. Manek asked Anand Jain to lead the defence; Anand Jain was his lieutenant.

Anand Jain and his co-workers started to buy the shares of Reliance from Manu Manek. It was like a counter-attack. The more Manek sold, the more Jain bought. As a result, the prices of Reliance shares started going up again.

Manu Manek and his group, Bear Cartel, didn’t own the shares. They just lent them from the stock market and were waiting for the prices to fell to buy the shares with lower prices. What was worse was that the prices of Reliance shares did not decrease. Bear Cartel was under pressure to deliver the actual shares.

At this time, Bear Cartel had to buy back the shares even at a higher price or wait more and let the price rise even higher. They didn’t have any other choices.

BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) closed down for few days just because of an intense scrimmage between Bear Cartel and Dhirubhai Ambani. It shows that how important a role that Manu Manek had in the market.

After all of this, the Bear Cartel waved the white flag and surrounded and paid all the dues to Anand Jain and Dhirubhai Ambani.

Manu Manek vs Harshad Mehta

Before Harshad Mehta, Manu Manek was the leader of the stock market. Still, when Harshad Mehta entered the market, he spoiled all the cartel’s strategies.

Mehta was famous for Big Bull. Manek and Mehta had too many standoffs during their career. The biggest one was over the shares of the company named Androl.

Harshad Mehta bought the shares that the bear cartel had shorted. It is similar to what Anand Jain did with Manek. This cause to push the cartel into a defensive position.

After that, Manek tried to attack Mehta’s credibility by spreading rumours such as Harshad Mehta had suffered losses worth Rs. 1 crore in the market. Mehta was more genius than Manek because Mehta cleared all his dues before Manek’s rumours.

Bear cartel was in wonder about Mehta’s ability to bring funds into the market. Even Mehta had won the war. He was going to lose the battle against the bear cartel.

Banks transferred money illegally way, so they just had to wait until the news of Mehta’s scam breaks out. When the fraud erupted, Mehta’s departure was unexpected.

Nature of duties

Interesting facts about Manu Manek

• He entered the stock market when the share prices were crescendoed.
• According to him, whenever the stock continues expanding in the market, its price will decrease.
• Just by shorting the stocks for a couple of days, Manu Manek successfully increased the selling pressure in the market.
• Bear Cartel was working only with Manek’s bearings, and whole-group members used his knowledge in securities exchange.
• Due to Manek’s short-selling procedures, he was in good company.
• Some successful people in today’s stock market were Monk’s pupils or friends.
• Manu Manek was perfectly familiar with the equivalent, and he framed a bear cartel throughout the long term.
• Bear Cartel followed similar strategies and hit alongside the Manek.

Conclusion

Manu Manek, famous for the Black Cobra, was a skilled and fearless investor who dictated the stock market with his short-selling techniques and earned huge profits.

He was controlling the whole market. It also fostered many people who are now very successful in the market, for example, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Radhakishan Damani.

Investing in the stock market is like gambling. If an investor knows the rules and regulations and how to play in the market, analyzing and predicting will be easy and can bring them huge profits. Still, if an investor is not a good player in the market, it harms his wealth.