Heard on the street: Amitabh Bachchan uses weakness to strengthen his holdings

Like a contrarian, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan has been adding to his portfolio of stocks that include Birla Pacific, Fineotex Chemical, M&B Switchgears and Neuland Laboratories even as these stocks, like most others, have been losing in value over the past few quarters.

He increased his stake in Fineotex Chemicals from 3.90% as on December 31, 2011 to 3.97% as on March 31, 2012, during which time the share price had taken a knock of 14%. The actor has also bought additional shares of Birla Pacific taking his holdings to 1.49% from 1.43% on September 30, 2011.

His other investments include M&B Switchgears (2.3%) and Neuland Labs (1.7%). Most of these stocks are currently quoting at a substantial discount to their IPO prices. Mr Bachchan did not respond to queries related to his portfolio and investment strategy, which were sent on last Thursday.

(Contributed by Vijay Gurav)