Adani Group shares continue to bleed, five stocks hit lower circuit

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, February 10

The global credit ratings agency, Moody’s Investors Service, giving stable outlook to four Adani companies and reports about the business group scouting for lawyers in the US to take on Hindenburg were inadequate to stop the slide in shares of nine out of its 10 listed firms on Friday.

Downward journey

• The Group’s flagship, Adani Enterprises, hit the lower circuit of 10% before recovering and finally ending the session at Rs 1,846.95, down 4.09% from yesterday
• The lower circuit-breaker of 5% was also hit by Adani Power, Adani Transmission, Adani Green, Adani Gas and Adani Total Gas
• On the other hand, the decline was marginal in the case of NDTV (3.63%) and ACC (1.86%)
• Adani Ports gained marginally (0.28%), while ACC declined 1.86% and Adani Wilmar was down 0.86%

Moody’s changed its outlook to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ in the case of four Adani Group companies — Adani Green Energy Ltd, Adani Green Energy Restricted Group, Adani Transmission Step-One Ltd and Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd — but it also maintained a stable outlook for four other companies. Even though nine companies remained in the negative territory, the stable outlook for others is significant in a rapidly declining market for Adani Group shares.

The market was not mollified by statements from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India, indicating an appraisal by the two regulators into any possible violation of securities laws, conflict of interest in share sale and exposure of financial institutions to the Adani Group’s bonds and shares.

Shares of the Group’s flagship company, Adani Enterprises, hit the lower circuit-breaker by falling 10%. It, however, later recovered and finally ended the day at Rs 1,846.95, down 4.09%.The lower circuit-breaker of 5% was also hit by Adani Power, Adani Transmission, Adani Green, Adani Gas and Adani Total Gas. On the other hand, the decline was marginal in the case of NDTV (3.63%) and ACC (1.86%). Adani Ports gained marginally (0.28%), while ACC declined by 1.86% and Adani Wilmar was down by 0.86%.

Adani Group companies have now lost around Rs 9.4 lakh crore of their combined market capitalisation since January 24 when the Hindenburg Research report was published despite the attempt to calm the market by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the RBI and the SEBI.

Meanwhile, Hindenburg Research founder Nathan Anderson has said his firm was never banned, its bank account never seized and that it is not under any investigation. Recent targets of Hindenburg have been a Chinese company, five US companies and a Colombian company.