Adani Group shares continue to slide as Quant unloads holdings, Stanchart stops accepting its bonds

New Delhi, February 6

Most Adani Group continued to slide after the stock market opened following the week-end break with more adverse news in the form of the UP power utility cancelling a Rs 5,400 crore order on a group company for smart meters while one of the better performing mutual fund, Quant Mutual Fund, exited its position in the company’s stocks, due to market volatility.

Stanchart followed Credit Suisse and Citibank in refusing to accept Adani dollar bonds as collateral on margin loans.

At the end of the trading session on Monday, six of the 10 listed Adani Group companies hit the lower circuit breakers while four moved into positive territory. Adani Transmission fell 10 per cent and shares of Adani Total Gas, Adani Power, Adani Green and Adani Wilmar declined by five per cent each. Shares of Adani Ports rose 9.46 per cent and those of Ambuja Cements, ACC and NDTV by one to two per cent.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to instill confidence in its future prospects, the Adani Group has prepaid $ 1.11 billion to release some pledged shares in Adani Ports, Adani Green and Adani Transmission “in light of recent market volatility and in continuation of the promoters’ commitment to reduce the overall promoter leverage backed by Adani listed company shares”. The amount was to mature in September 2024 and the step has released about 1.68 crore shares in the three companies.

In a damper to the Group’s shares, valuation guru Aswath Damodaran in a blog pegged the fair value for Adani Enterprises at Rs 947 as against the present price in the range of Rs 1,500 per share.

However, Patanjali Foods, which like the Adani Group has seen a meteoric rise in its turnover since 2014, rose to touch a recent high of Rs 939, up by 3.55 per cent from its Friday closing. Shares of Patanjali Foods (earlier Ruchi Soya) have been sliding since its reported unexpectedly lower profits for the quarter ended December 2022.