Adani group stocks trade on mixed note; Adani Enterprises jumps 10%

New Delhi: Shares of Adani group firms were trading on a mixed note in morning trade on Monday, with flagship Adani Enterprises climbing 10 per cent even as most of the group companies fell, a day after it released a 413-page response to allegations of wrongdoing brought by a US-based short seller Hindenburg Research.

Most of the group firms fell for the third day running on Monday, with Adani Total Gas tumbling 20 per cent, Adani Transmission tanking 19.14 per cent, Adani Green Energy witnessing a slump of 18.99 per cent, Adani Power declining 5 per cent, Adani Wilmar dipping 5 per cent and NDTV (5 per cent) on the BSE.

However, the stock of Adani Enterprises jumped 10 per cent and Adani Ports climbed 10 per cent.

Shares of Ambuja Cements also rallied 11.84 per cent and ACC zoomed 10 per cent.

Since Tuesday last week to this Monday morning trade, the group firms have collectively lost about Rs 5.54 lakh crore in market valuation.

Stock markets were closed on Thursday on account of Republic Day.

On Friday, the Adani group stocks fell up to 20 per cent and had lost more than Rs 4.17 lakh crore from the combined market valuation of listed firms after Hindenburg Research made damaging allegations.

Gautam Adani's group on Sunday expressed confidence that the Rs 20,000 crore follow-on share sale of its flagship firm will sail through despite a massive hammering of the conglomerate's stocks following a scathing report by the US-based short seller.

Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh said no change in offering price or schedule is being considered due to temporary volatility in the market as the follow-on public offer (FPO) of Adani Enterprises Ltd is the best vehicle for strategic institutional investors to own a pie of the conglomerate's fast expanding airports, mining, roads, new energy and data centre businesses.

"The statement from Adani Enterprises that the FPO is on schedule and that there is no change in the price band is hugely important. This can be interpreted as a reflection of the confidence of the management in the success of the FPO," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Hindenburg Research has rejected Adani Group's charge that its report was an attack on India, saying a "fraud" cannot be obfuscated by nationalism or a bloated response that ignored response to key allegations.

Commenting on the 413-page response Adani Group released late on Sunday evening in response to its report, Hindenburg said it believed India was a vibrant democracy and an emerging superpower with an exciting future and it was Adani Group which was holding it back through "systematic loot".

Hindenburg stood by its last week's report that said its two-year investigation found Adani Group "engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades".

Meanwhile, equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, pared early gains and were trading lower.

The 30-share BSE benchmark quoted 161.08 points lower at 59,169.82, while the Nifty traded 55.80 points down at 17,551.30.