The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted the Securities and Exchange Board of India time till August 14 to complete its probe into the allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani group. A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud directed the SEBI to file an updated status report of the investigation.
Owing to a big rise in the market capitalisation of group companies such as Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission, the group promoters, the Gautam Adani family, have closed the wealth gap with Mukesh Ambani, the promoter and owner of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). Ambani continues to top India's billionaire league table. The Ambani family's net worth was estimated to be Rs 8.06 trillion (around $108 billion) on Tuesday against the Rs 6.87 trillion (around $92 billion) of the Adani family.
For several months, there has been speculation among political circles in Amaravati that Priti Adani was most likely to be given one of the four Rajya Sabha seats on behalf of the ruling YSRC.
Moody's Investor Service on Tuesday said banks' exposures to Adani are not large enough to affect their credit quality materially. "While we estimate that the exposures are larger for public sector banks than for private sector banks, they are smaller than 1 per cent of total loans for most banks," it said. "Risks for banks can increase if Adani becomes more reliant on bank loans."
Tata Steel and Tata Motors dropped over 10 per cent each. Larsen & Toubro, HCL Technologies, Adani Ports, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Reliance Industries and Mahindra & Mahindra were the other big laggards.
'People should realise that what we are fighting for today is actually for tomorrow, for future generations.'
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered setting up of a six-member committee headed by former apex court judge Justice A M Sapre to investigate the recent Adani group shares crash triggered by the Hindenburg Research's fraud allegations and other regulatory aspects related to stock markets.
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Tuesday reiterated that the Hindenburg report was a combination of misinformation and discredited allegations. Speaking at the AGM of his group companies, he said that on the eve of Republic Day this year, US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report to short group stocks just as it was planning to launch the largest Follow-on Public Offering in India's history.
Sections of our media and elites take Western reports/judgements at face value and are ready to condemn the targets without understanding the deeper power linkages behind such actions, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (Retd).
One of the reasons why the TMC decided not to demand a JPC is that the chairperson and most of its members would be from the BJP, he said, adding JPC means putting the issue under the carpet.
Adani Power Ltd's Rs 7,017-crore deal to buy thermal power assets of DB Power has fallen after the initial pact expired. "We wish to inform that the long stop date under the memorandum of understanding dated August 18, 2022, has expired," Adani Power said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. Earlier in August 2022, Adani Power had informed the bourses that it has agreed to acquire DB Power Ltd (DB Power), which owns and operates a running 2x600 MW thermal power plant at district Janjgir Champa in Chhattisgarh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has links to an organisation financed by the George Soros Foundation, which has reportedly supported the idea of an independent Kashmir. The party claims this connection demonstrates foreign influence in Indian internal affairs. This comes after BJP's claims of US involvement in destabilizing India, which the US has denied. The BJP also accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of collaborating with the Soros-funded OCCRP to damage India's economy and reputation. The allegations have drawn criticism from the US embassy and the opposition Congress.
Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) on Monday said it has an exposure of Rs 36,474.78 crore to Adani group's debt and equity, and the amount is less than one per cent of the national insurer's total investments.
From the Sensex firms, Tata Steel, Power Grid, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance Industries and Adani Ports were among the biggest gainers. Asian Paints and Tata Consultancy Services were the only laggards.
Gandhi said the prime minister did not answer the questions he had posed to him.
Addressing a press conference in Pune, Pawar also responded to a query on Thursday's meeting between industrialist Gautam Adani and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, saying the two know each other and there is nothing wrong if two such persons meet.
With husband Vicky Kaushal's Chhaava doing so well at the box office, Katrina Kaif seems to be just as grateful, as she heads to the Maha Kumbh Mela with mother-in-law Veena Kaushal.
Foreign banks and private credit funds are queuing up to fund acquisitions by Indian companies who are buying out their local rivals. The Adani Group, Torrent Group, and the Hindujas have approached several foreign banks and private equity (PE) firms to fund their acquisitions. Global investors have about $2 trillion of funds to invest, and about $100 to $150 billion is set aside for India, according to an estimate by JP Morgan.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said although his outfit does not agree with the demand of anti-Bharatiya Janata Party outfits for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into allegations against the Adani group, it will not go against their stand for the sake of Opposition unity.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone has repaid Rs 1,500 crore loan and will repay another Rs 1,000 crore in commercial papers due in March. The Adani Group firm paid Rs 1,000 crore to SBI Mutual Fund and Rs 500 crore to Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund on commercial papers that matured on Monday, as scheduled.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the market regulator, has said, in a submission to the Supreme Court, that it is "enquiring" into the allegations made by American short-seller Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group of companies and its impact on the markets. In the same matter, the central government has agreed to form an expert committee to strengthen the regulatory regime in order to ensure that market investors are protected. The Supreme Court had last week suggested an expert committee to look into the allegations and had asked the Centre for its response.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has sent invitations to 7,000 people, including 3,000 VVIPs, for the consecration.
The Adani group will invest Rs 10,700 crore into Lucknow airport's expansion so that its annual passenger handling capacity zooms from 4 million passengers per annum (MPPA) to 39 MPPA. The airport's expansion plan received clearance from the Union environment ministry on December 15. However, the plan submitted to the ministry did not mention the deadline for the expansion.
In 1937, a hydrogen-powered German airship flying into New Jersey caught fire and crashed, killing 35 passengers on board. It was sort of a man-made disaster as some 100 people were loaded on to a balloon filled with the most flammable material in the universe. The airship was named Hindenburg. Eight decades later, in 2017, a graduate of international business management from the University of Connecticut founded a "forensic financial research" firm to specialise in spotting wrongdoings and frauds, or what it calls man-made disasters, at companies around the globe and take market bets against them.
In the centre of an ownership battle with Adani Group, New Delhi Television (NDTV) can prevent a takeover by the group if it can buy more shares from public shareholders, corporate lawyers told Business Standard. On Tuesday, the media arm of Adani Group said it had exercised rights to acquire an indirect stake of 29.18 per cent in NDTV through conversion of loans into equity in a promoter group entity of NDTV. This will trigger a mandatory open offer for an additional 26 per cent stake in NDTV, even as the broadcaster said its founder promoters had neither consented to the exercise of rights nor was any conversation or input given on the matter.
The government and opposition parties on Monday reached an agreement to break the impasse in Parliament with dates announced for discussions on the Constitution in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Adani Enterprises became the fourth listed company of Gautam Adani Group to cross Rs 4 trillion market capitalisation (market cap), as the stock hit a new high on the BSE in Tuesday's intra-day trade. At 01:24 pm; with Rs 4.04 trillion market cap, Adani Enterprises stood at number 15th position in overall market cap ranking on the BSE, data shows. Adani Transmission is at top of the group companies list, with market cap of Rs 4.48 trillion, followed by Adani Total Gas (Rs 3.96 trillion), and Adani Green Energy (Rs 3.72 trillion).
Opposition parties on Thursday agreed to jointly raise the issue of allegations of fraud against the Adani Group in Parliament but were yet to agree on the mode of inquiry into the Gujarat-based corporate major.
The Adani group on Friday moved the Kerala high court seeking the assistance of central forces to continue with construction at the Vizhinjam seaport in Thiruvananthapuram which was marred by violent protests recently halting the work.
The Centre has no objection to a proposal for setting up a panel of domain experts to look into strengthening the regulatory mechanisms for the stock market, the Supreme Court was told on Monday while it was hearing pleas relating to the Adani stocks rout after the Hindenburg report. The central government, however, told a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud that it wanted to give the names of the domain experts for the committee and the scope of its mandate in a sealed cover in larger interest.
Adani later tweeted "Delighted to meet @MamataOfficial,Hon'ble Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. "Discussed different investment scenarios and the tremendous potential of West Bengal. "I look forward to attending the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) in April 2022." Nabanna sources said the meeting continued for one-and-half hours.
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Sunday won the race to acquire Swiss cement major Holcim's stake in Ambuja Cements and its subsidiary ACC for $10.5 bn (around Rs 81,361 crore), including the open offers. The Adani family, through an offshore special-purpose vehicle, announced that it had entered into definitive agreements for the acquisition of Holcim Ltd's entire stake in two of India's leading cement companies -- Ambuja Cements and ACC -- the Adani group said in a statement. The group outbid Ultratech and JSW group to enter the cement industry and also emerge as the country's second-largest cement manufacturer, with 70 million tonnes of capacity annually.
All the BSE sectoral indices closed in the green. BSE Realty, Auto, Capital Goods and Industrials were lead gainers, jumping up to 5 per cent. IndusInd Bank was the lead gainer among Sensex shares, surging by 6.84 per cent. Tata Motors rallied 4.50 per cent. Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Adani Ports, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and HCL Tech were also among the gainers. ITC and Hindustan Unilever were the only laggards.
More than a dozen entities, both domestic and foreign, had come under the regulatory glare over alleged short-selling before and after the publication of the Hindenburg research report against Adani Group, two people familiar with the development said. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which is examining the rise in stock values of Adani Group in the past few years, is also scrutinising the trade data and trade pattern of these entities allegedly involved in short-selling and made significant profit. Enquiries in the trade pattern of these entities reflected a profit of over Rs 30,000 crore, pre- and post-Hindenburg saga, said one of the two people.
Which way will Adani stocks head next week? Is it a good time to pick up Adani stocks?
