The Adani group had its best session on the bourses on Monday since the release of the Hindenburg report with all its 10 listed firms rallying and their combined market capitalisation going past the Rs 10-lakh-crore (trillion) mark after a Supreme Court-appointed panel found no evidence of stock price manipulation.
The gains were led by flagship Adani Enterprises which zoomed 18.84 per cent or Rs 368.55 to close at Rs 2,325.55 on the BSE.
Among others, while Adani Wilmar climbed 10 per cent to Rs 444.40, Adani Ports gained 6.03 per cent to finish at Rs 729.65, Ambuja Cements gained 5.01 per cent to Rs 423.60.
On the other hand Adani Power was locked in at the upper circuit of 5 per cent at Rs 248 whereas Adani Transmission also saw a similar result to settle at Rs 825.35.
Similarly, while Adani Green Energy and Adani Total Gas were up 5 per cent each, NDTV advanced 4.98 per cent and ACC climbed 4.93 per cent.
Following the across-the-board rally in the group stocks, the combined market valuation of the 10 listed firms reached Rs 10.16 lakh crore. In two sessions, the combined market valuation of all the group firms has jumped Rs 1,14,641.79 crore.
On January 23, a day before the Hindenburg report was released their market capitalisation stood at Rs 19.2 lakh crore.
The Supreme Court expert panel in its report said that “ at this stage, taking into account the explanations provided by Sebi, supported by empirical data, prima facie, it would not be possible for the committee to conclude that there has been a regulatory failure around the allegation of price manipulation.”
``The high integrity of the members of the panel must have given confidence to investors to buy the beaten down stocks. Some short covering also would have contributed to the rally. However, from the valuation perspective, Adani stocks are not undervalued,’’ V.K. Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services said while commenting on the sharp upmove seen in the Adani group stocks today.
The expert panel further said that market regulator Sebi did not find any pattern of artificial trading or ``wash trades’’ (where connected parties transact in a stock continually with one another without any intention to actually transfer ownership of the stock) during the period when the Adani group stocks saw a massive gain in their value.
However, the committee added that there was evidence of a build-up in short positions on Adani group stocks ahead of the report of the US-based short seller that alleged fraud, stock manipulation, and money laundering at the group. Profits were earned from squaring off positions after prices crashed post-publication of its allegations.
The committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice A.M. Sapre, in its report, said that based on the data from Sebi it saw "no evident pattern of manipulation".
