The base changed
Your ten shares cost ₹5,000 before charges: ten times ₹500. Suppose, only for this example, that the market price falls to ₹250. The holding is now marked at ₹2,500. It has lost ₹2,500, or 50% of the original ₹5,000.
A 50% rise from ₹250 adds ₹125 a share. That takes the price only to ₹375 and the holding only to ₹3,750. You are still ₹1,250 below the starting value.
To return from ₹250 to ₹500, the price must add ₹250. ₹250 is 100% of ₹250. The rupee amount lost and regained is the same; the percentages are not, because their starting points differ.
- Bought · 10 × ₹500
- ₹5,000
- After a 50% fall · 10 × ₹250
- ₹2,500
- After a 50% rise from ₹250 · 10 × ₹375
- ₹3,750
- Rise needed from ₹250 to ₹500
- ₹250 ÷ ₹250 = 100%
Move the price; watch your ten shares
Start at ₹500, drag to ₹250, then drag back toward ₹500. These are hypothetical prices; no Bharat Foods trade or corporate action happened.
At ₹250 your ten shares show ₹2,500. A 50% rise from there is ₹375, not ₹500. The slider moves in ₹10 steps, so use the arithmetic above for the exact ₹375 halfway point.
The illustrative holding falls from ₹5,000 to ₹2,500. What rise from ₹2,500 returns it to ₹5,000, before costs?
The deeper the fall, the steeper the climb
A 20% loss leaves 80% of your starting money. To refill the missing 20 from a base of 80 takes 25%. An 80% loss leaves 20; to refill the missing 80 from 20 takes 400%. A 100% loss leaves zero, and no percentage gain on zero rebuilds the original position.
The rule is simple: required gain = amount lost ÷ amount left. For a 50% loss, that is 50 ÷ 50 = 100%. This is arithmetic, not a forecast. A share that fell is under no obligation to recover, and a cheaper quoted price is not proof that it will.
Adding fresh money can bring an account back to ₹5,000 sooner, but that is new capital, not a recovery of the old investment. Nor does refusing to sell remove the fall in the holding's current market value.
An investment of ₹5,000 falls 20% to ₹4,000. What rise on ₹4,000 gets back to ₹5,000?
What this changes in a decision
A small loss is not automatically a reason to sell, and a large possible return is not automatically a reason to buy. The calculation tells you something narrower and more useful: a deep loss consumes more than its own percentage of the return you will later need.
Before taking a risk, ask how much of the starting amount could disappear and what would be required to rebuild it. Chapter 01.09's costs raise the true break-even further. The next lesson asks what happens when a loss also takes away your ability to wait or act again.
Source · checked 26 September 2026. The percentages are direct arithmetic from the illustrative ₹5,000 position. For the general possibility of losing some or all invested capital, see SEBI Investor, ‘Securities Market Investment: How to Manage Investment Risks’. No historical Bharat Foods price move is asserted.