Before the boom, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was the only known face in this group of billionaires who held at least one per cent stake in a listed Indian company.

This motley group now also includes Balrajsinh A Parmar, Ranjitsinh A Parmar, Ravi K Seth, Bharat K Seth, Nimish Shah and Shivanand Mankekar and family. They are not promoters of any company but ordinary public shareholders.

The number of shareholder-billionaires will go up if one takes into account persons holding less than 1 per cent stake in companies.

However, the stock exchanges do not make this data public. Market sources also say there can be another 50 to 100 such stockbrokers worth over Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) each.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is the wealthiest among shareholder-billionaires with a net worth of Rs 1,455.41 crore {Rs 14.55 billion (based on the market prices of his holdings on January 21)}.

The shareholding information culled from Capitaline Plus shows that Jhunjhunwala and his wife Rekha hold at least 1 per cent or more stake in 27 listed companies.

The market value of his holding in four companies has been more than Rs 100 crore each while in four other companies his holdings are worth over Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) each.

Jhunjhunwala holds 4.94 per cent shares in Bharat Earth Movers [Get Quote] that is worth Rs 229.98 crore (Rs 2.3 billion); 6.95 per cent in Titan Industries [Get Quote] valued at Rs 222.37 crore (Rs 2.22 billion); and 9.27 per cent in Nagarjuna Construction valued at Rs 234.98 crore (Rs 2.35 billion).

Balrajsinh A Parmar, a former director of Suzlon Energy [Get Quote], ranks a distant second in the list with a net worth of Rs 385.31 crore (Rs 3.85 billion). Ravi K Seth, director of Financial Technologies, ranks third with a net worth of Rs 316.94 crore (Rs 3.17 billion) and Ranjitsinh A Parmar, director of Suzlon Hotels, is fourth in the list with a net worth of Rs 294.76 crore (Rs 2.95 billion).

Bharat K Seth is next on the ladder with Rs 229.46 crore (2.29 billion) worth stake in Financial Technologies. Nimish Shah, a broker, is worth Rs 170.48 crore (Rs 1.7 billion). Shivanand Shankar Mankekar and family are currently worth Rs 170.99 crore (Rs 1.71 billion). Mankekar holds over 1 per cent stake in 15 companies including Financial Technologies, Astra Microwave and Liberty Shoes [Get Quote].

The current shareholding information shows that 12 investors are worth between Rs 50 and 98 crore (Rs 500 and Rs 980 million) each; 21 others hold shares worth Rs 25-50 crore (Rs 250-500 million) each while 61 others have public shareholdings valued between Rs 10 and 25 crore (Rs 100 and 250 million).

*Figures in Rs crore, based on market prices on Jan 21