Buying in Adani stocks continue; Adani Enterprises jumps nearly 18% in morning trade

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| Photo Credit: Reuters

All Adani Group stocks extended their rally, with Adani Enterprises climbing nearly 18% on May 23 (morning), after a Supreme Court-appointed panel found no evidence of stock price manipulation in the group companies while a separate Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) probe into alleged violation of money flows from offshore entities drew a blank. The stock of Adani Enterprises zoomed 17.65% on the BSE.

Shares of Adani Wilmar jumped 9.99%, Adani Ports gained 7.71%, Adani Power climbed 5%, Adani Transmission (5%), Adani Green (5%), Adani Total Gas (5%) and NDTV (4.99%). The stock of Ambuja Cements jumped 4% and ACC climbed 2.87%. Some group stocks also hit their upper circuit limits during the morning trade.

Also read: Adani stocks rally up to 19% after clean chit from SC panel

In the equity market, the 30-share BSE benchmark climbed 238.21 points or 0.38% to quote at 62,201.89 in morning trade. Adani Group stocks have been rallying since May 19.

The six-member panel, however, said there was evidence of a build-up in short positions on Adani Group stocks ahead of the report of U.S.-based short seller Hindenburg Research that alleged fraud, stock manipulation, and money-laundering at the apples-to-port group.

Profits were earned from squaring off positions after prices crashed post-publication of the damning allegations.

Also read: The financial jargon in the Adani-Hindenburg saga explained

The committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice A. M. Sapre, in its 173-page report, said that based on the data from SEBI, it saw “no evident pattern of manipulation” in the steep stock price rise in billionaire Gautam Adani’s companies that can be attributed to “any single entity or group of connected entities”.

“It was not possible to conclude whether there had been regulatory failures regarding price manipulations,” the panel said in the report.

After the Hindenburg report stirred a political row and triggered a rout in the conglomerate’s stocks, dethroning Mr. Adani as the world’s third richest man, the Supreme Court had on March 2 constituted the expert committee to investigate if there was any failure to disclose transactions with related parties and if stock prices were manipulated.

The Committee was to work in parallel with the probe by SEBI into offshore entities investing in Adani Group. While the report is not the final word, it certainly comes as a relief for Adani’s empire.

“Adani stocks have rallied in response to the Supreme Court expert panel’s remark 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, said V. K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.