Diamonds are not forever, neither are stocks

But a few weeks ago, the other three members of the syndicate abandoned him leaving Vakaria a personal loss of upwards of Rs 12 crore. Though sources in the diamond trade said Vakaria had left a suicide note saying he was killing himself because of the losses, police did not confirm the same. He was rushed to a local nursing home where he died. Sources said a large stock of assorted stones and other valueable kept in a locker at his Pearl House office went missing when the news of his death spread in the market. Jivraj, who owned Vinayak Gems and operated from Panchratna building, too, had incurred huge losses of about Rs 18 crore in the stock market apart from big losses in some transaction of gems. He jumped from the fifth floor of his office building in Bangkok also on Sunday, May 21.

He body was brought to the city on Tuesday for the last rites. Jivraj reportedly told the Thai police before succumbing to his injuries that he was responsible for his death. Sources in the diamond market said apart from losses in the stock market, Jairaj lost money in billing. The diamond trade was abuzz with rumours of a third suicide, too, but that could not be confirmed. All this comes at a time when the trade is in a recession and is still recovering from the shock of being duped by tricksters to the tune of Rs 40 crore. In February this year, the Mehta family comprising of Sharan, Sheetal and Ruchi Sharma bagan collecting an assortment of diamonds against credit.

They gave false assurances to the diamond traders that they had located some big overseas buyers, who were currently in Delhi. Many traders entrusted their precious stones to the trio in the hope that their samples would be approved by the (non-existent) consortium. But in April, the tricksters disappeared without a trace with diamonds worth Rs 20 crore in April. Inspired by the Mehtas, a small-time railway booking agent operating from the Panchratna building at Opera House switched business and duped diamond merchants by providing fake bills to the tune of more than Rs 20 crore. He too disappeared without a trace. According to Hardik Hundiya, who specialises in the diamond trade, the reasons for traders getting into stocks and walking into such traps are are not far to see. The import of raw diamonds from counties such as South Africa, Belgium and Isreal has come down in recent months, Hundiya said, leading to uncertainty in the market. Thus many of them were trying to make a quick buck by investing inshares to compensate for losses in diamond trade, he said.

Investors lose shirt in ICE stocks

The melting of ICE stocks in the last two months has been a rude shock to lakhs of investors. ICE stocks like Satyam Computers, Infosys, Zee Telefilms, Pentafour and Himachal Futuristic went through the roof in an amazing bull run in the January-March period. But the bubble was created only to burst later. Satyam which went up from Rs 563 to Rs 7,230 has now fallen to Rs 2,181, Zee which shot up from Rs 132 to Rs 1,630 has crashed to Rs 409 and Infosys which rose from Rs 1,516 to Rs 13,813 has dipped to Rs 5,990. Most of the retail investors, including Vakaria and Jivraj, bought ICE stocks when they were ruling at the high levels. Investors who put money in ICE stocks in the last three months have lost around 70 per cent of their wealth. The networth of software czar Azim Premji of Wipro plummeted from Rs 1,65,400 crore to around Rs 40,000 crore in three months.