Mumbai: Adani Group stocks fell up to 14% on Friday, wiping out more than $9 billion in market value, following news reports the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sought an American court’s permission to personally email summons to the conglomerate’s billionaire founder Gautam Adani and nephew Sagar Adani over alleged fraud and a $265-million bribery plot.
Shares of Adani Enterprises, the group’s flagship company, tumbled 11% on Friday, while Adani Green Energy and Adani Energy Solutions slumped 14.6%, and 12%, respectively. All 12 listed group stocks ended lower.
Agencies
Investors told to wait for clarity
The sell-off wiped ₹86,356 crore of the group’s market value on Friday to ₹12,73,068 crore.
“The fall in these shares was due to reports of US SEC summons. We would suggest investors wait for some clarity and stay on the sidelines until then,” said Sunny Agrawal, head of fundamental research at SBI Securities.
The US indictment, which was unsealed in November 2024, accused Adani group executives of being part of a scheme to pay bribes to Indian officials for buying electricity produced by Adani Green Energy, Reuters said in a report.
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The fresh set of allegations came three years after the release of the scathing report by US short-seller Hindenburg in January 2023, which had triggered a sharp drop in Adani group stock prices over the next few months.
The firm accused the conglomerate of engaging in ‘brazen stock manipulation’ and ‘accounting fraud’. Within two weeks of the Hindenburg report’s release, the group’s market value dropped from ₹19.2 lakh crore to ₹6.7 lakh crore in early February.
Analysts are selectively bullish on some of the group stocks.
“While we could see, for the time being, pressure on these stocks, companies whose fundamentals are good will perform well over a period,” said Mahesh Ojha, vice president, Research at KC Securities.
