Shares of Adani Group companies rallied Friday, trimming their losses for the week, after a panel appointed by India’s Supreme Court found no conclusive evidence of stock price manipulation as alleged by US short-seller Hindenburg Research.
(Bloomberg) — Shares of Adani Group companies rallied Friday, trimming their losses for the week, after a panel appointed by India’s Supreme Court found no conclusive evidence of stock price manipulation as alleged by US short-seller Hindenburg Research.
Flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd. surged 3.5% on the court findings. Other group entities like Adani Transmission Ltd., and Adani Power Ltd. closed higher by about 5%. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. jumped 3.5%.
The late Friday rebound helped the group to trim its losses for the week to around $4.5 billion from as much as $10 billion earlier in the day, weighed down by MSCI Inc.’s move to exclude two entities from its India gauge and concerns over potential dilution from a fundraising plan.
The Supreme Court-appointed panel said the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s surveillance system found “no coherent pattern of abusive trading” in the flagship’s stock.
Adani Total Gas Ltd. — one of the two stocks to be dropped from the MSCI India gauge at the end of this month along with Adani Transmission — marked its worst week since late February. Adani Transmission lost about 11% in value this week. The exclusions will probably trigger around $390 million of selling by passive funds, Brian Freitas, an independent equities analyst who publishes on Smartkarma, predicted earlier.
Flagship Adani Enterprises, incubator for many of the group’s investments, closed the week with a loss of 0.4%, after at one point staring at its worst week since March. The company and its transmission unit last week flagged plans to raise $2.6 billion via a qualified institutional placement or other modes, triggering concerns of equity dilution.
Share-Sale Concerns
“If the shares are priced too low in a QIP issue, it could be seen as a sign of weakness or desperation,” Arpit Shah, a fund manager at Care Portfolio Managers, wrote via email.
Adani stocks have been trying to regain their footing after fraud allegations by Hindenburg Research in late January spurred a rout that at one point wiped out over $150 billion from the group’s market value. Stocks recovered after GQG Partners in early March bought stakes in four of the group’s entities, offering a vote of confidence. The market-cap loss currently stands at $122 billion.
Adani has denied Hindenburg’s allegations, while taking steps in the aftermath of the report to assuage investor concerns over debt and corporate governance.
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