Adani loses ₹100,000 crores within 2 days after report claims he’s a ‘fraud’: SEBI and RBI asked to investigate, stocks fall

Market capitalisation of the ten listed Adani Group stocks took a beating on Wednesday and continues on Friday amid a report by Hindenburg Research claiming that the Indian conglomerate had engaged in stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of last few decades.

Shares of the group’s flagship company Adani Enterprises tumbled 6.2% to Rs 3,180 per share in early deals, while those of Adani Ports and SEZ shed 5%; Adani Power 5.3%; Adani Wilmar 4.9%; Ambuja Cement 4.6%; Adani Green 15.5%; and Adani Total Gas 19.6%. By comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex plunged 578 points or nearly 1% at 9:30 AM.

Following the allegations, the combined market capitalisation of the group stocks tanked Rs 96,672 crore to Rs 18.23 lakh crore from Rs 19.20 lakh crore on January 24.

Hindenburg Research on its website said that the company specialises in forensic financial research. It says it has ‘experience in the investment management industry spans decades, with a historical focus on equity, credit, and derivatives analysis.

“While we use fundamental analysis to aid our investment decision-making, we believe the most impactful research results from uncovering hard-to-find information from atypical sources,” the company website says.

Researchers from Hindenburg had pointed out the complicated maze of transactions undertaken by many of the listed Adani Group firms.

“We are shocked that Hindenburg Research published a report on Jan. 24, 2023, without making any attempt to contact us or verify the factual matrix,” Group Chief Financial Officer Jugeshinder Singh had said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Congress Friday demanded a “serious investigation” by the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India into the research.