Adani Green, Several Other Group Stocks See Plunge Deepen As Fight With Short Seller Takes 'India Growth Story' Turn

Adani Group companies’ publicly-listed shares are continuing to plunge for a third straight session as markets open for fresh week’s trading on Monday.

What Happened: The continued slump in the stocks of the conglomerate led by India’s richest person Gautam Adani is in line with wider market expectations, as reported by Benzinga India earlier. The trading momentum further suggests that the markets remain unconvinced with Adani Group’s responses to the short seller allegations.

In latest move, Adani Group published a 413 pages long report on Sunday evening. In the report, the conglomerate highlighted its financial strength, auditing practices and clean chits given by courts in India time and again.

It also alleged Hindenburg’s actions aren’t against any individual company but a “calculated attack” on India. The New York-based activist short seller has attacked “integrity and quality of Indian institutions,” and targeted “the growth story and ambition of India,” according to the conglomerate.

Adani Group questioned both the credentials and authenticity of Hindenburg as an organization and the timing of the report, given that the report came just ahead of the group’s flagship company Adani Enterprises‘ 20,000-crore follow-on public offering — which would be the highest such FPO in India if it materializes in line with expectations.

The FPO is seeing extremely low interest amid the short seller allegations, getting just 1% subscriptions on day one.

Hindenburg in its reply to Adani Group ahead of market open on Monday said it believes “India is a vibrant democracy and an emerging superpower with an exciting future”.

The prominent U.S. short seller further alleged that “India's future is being held back by the Adani Group, which has draped itself in the Indian flag while systematically looting the nation.”

See Also: Top 10 Richest People In India In January 2023

New York-based Hindenburg Research last week announced taking a short position in the group’s seven publicly-listed companies and said it saw an 85% downside to the stocks purely on fundamental basis — and more if some of the allegations it laid out in a report are factored-in.

Price Action: This is how Adani Group stocks traded as the markets opened for trading on Monday:

Adani Enterprises shares traded 6.5% higher at ₹2,973.05 as trading price turns significantly below FPO price.

Adani Green Energy shares traded 16.89% lower at ₹1,226.60.

Adani Ports & SEZ shares traded 3.2% higher at ₹618.45.

Adani Power shares traded 5% lower at ₹235.55.

Adani Total Gas shares traded over 17% lower at ₹2,425.00.

Adani Wilmar shares plunged to hit lower circuit at open, down 5% to ₹491.00.

Adani Transmission shares were down nearly 15% to 1720.00.

Ambuja Cement shares trade 7.6% higher at ₹409.35. ACC shares traded 3.3% higher at ₹1,942.00.