Adani stocks surge after SC relief from fresh probes

MUMBAI: Adani Group stocks rallied up to 18% on Wednesday ahead of the Supreme Court's judgment in the Adani-Sebi case. The SC didn't order any investigation by other agencies or bodies like CBI in the case and declined to interfere in Sebi's investigation.

At close of the day's session, all 10 Adani Group stocks were in the green with Adani Energy Solutions (formerly Adani Transmission) leading the pack with a 12% gain. Group flagship Adani Enterprises closed 2.5% higher on the BSE.

The group's total market cap also crossed the Rs 15-lakh-crore mark in Wednesday's session. During the day's trade, the group companies added nearly Rs 64,000 crore to the conglomerate's total market value to Rs 15.1 lakh crore. From its all-time high total market cap of Rs 19.2 lakh crore on January 24, 2023 - the day US-based short seller Hindenburg had published its damning report against the group - it is still down by Rs 4.1 lakh crore or about 21%, BSE data showed.

Nearly a year ago, Hindenburg had published a report that alleged serious corporate malfeasance by Adani Group including cooking books of accounts, round tripping of own funds to jack up stock prices using offshore entities and over invoicing of import costs. Adani Group denied the allegations but by February 27, the group's market cap had dropped by about 65% to Rs 6.8 lakh crore. Since then, it has been on a steady upward trajectory, at times helped by SC orders that came in its favour and other regulatory moves.

Among the group's stocks, Adani Power is the biggest gainer since the Hindenburg report last year. The stock has nearly doubled, with the company's market cap now at Rs 2.1 lakh crore from Rs 1.1 lakh crore then. The biggest laggard has been Adani Total Gas, which has lost 72% of its market value - from Rs 4.3 lakh crore on January 24, 2023, it is at Rs 1.2 lakh crore. The other top laggards are Adani Transmission, down from Rs 3.1 lakh crore to Rs 1.3 lakh crore, and Adani Enterprises, down from Rs 3.9 lakh crore to Rs 3.4 lakh crore.