Adani shares fall amid Hindenburg-SEBI row By Investing.com

Investing.com– Shares of companies under the Adani Group fell on Monday after US-based short seller Hindenburg raised allegations of a conflict of interest between India’s securities regulator and offshore funds tied to the conglomerate.

Adani Enterprises Ltd (NS:) and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (NS:), the conglomerate’s flagship firms, fell between 4% and 2.8% in morning trade, respectively, while Adani Total Gas Ltd (NS:), Adani Energy Solutions Ltd (NS:), Adani Green Energy Ltd (NS:) and Adani Wilmar Ltd (NS:) sank between 3% and 6%.

Hindenburg alleged that Madhabi Puri Buch, the chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), had invested in offshore funds with ties to Adani- funds he had earlier accused of propping up Adani’s stock prices.

Buch denied the allegations in a response released on Sunday, stating that investments in the offshore entities had been made two years before her appointment as the SEBI head.

The move came as the latest development in Hindenburg’s allegations against Adani, whom the short seller had accused of engaging in stock price manipulation and money laundering in a damning report released last year.

SEBI had opened up an investigation into the allegations, which is still ongoing.

The Hindenburg report had sparked deep losses in Adani’s shares, although they did recover a bulk of said losses over the past year.

Hindenburg’s allegations also drew ire from SEBI and India’s ruling BJP party, with SEBI also issuing the short seller with a show cause notice last month.

Adani denied the fresh allegations in a response filed over the weekend.

“We completely reject these allegations against the Adani Group which are a recycling of discredited claims… The Adani Group has absolutely no commercial relationship with the individuals or matters mentioned.”

Weakness in Adani’s shares spilled over into broader Indian stocks on Monday, with the and losing about 0.4% each.