After a massive sell-off in the Adani Group stocks on Monday, the commodity-to-infrastructure conglomerate clarified that the demat accounts in which the foreign funds held shares of its Group companies were not frozen by the National Securities and Depository Limited (NSDL).
In a filing with stock exchanges about half-an-hour before the market close, the Adani Group tried to pacify the panic-stricken investors, who were on a selling spree of all the six listed Group entities. Within a day, Adani Group’s six listed entities lost collectively ₹53,764 crore (approx $7.3 billion) in market capitalisation.
Open at lower circuit
From the pre-opening session, Adani Group stocks were hammered with four of the six stocks, including Adani Total Gas Ltd (ATGL), Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL), Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) and Adani Power Ltd (APL), hitting the lower circuit in opening trade. Flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones Ltd (APSEZ) lost nearly 15 per cent each on the opening trades.
In its clarification on NSDL freezing the demat accounts of three foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) allegedly for insufficient disclosures on the beneficial ownership under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Adani Group stated that it had received a written confirmation from the Registrar and Transfer Agent ruling out any such action by NSDL.
Strong recovery
Soon after the clarification, three of the Group stocks made impressive recovery from the intra-day lows on BSE. AEL recovered from the lows of ₹1,201 to end at ₹1,501.25 lower by 6.26 per cent over the previous close. APSEZ recovered from the intra-day low of ₹681.50 to close the session at ₹768.70, down 8.36 per cent. AGEL had briefly turned positive after recovering from the intra-day low of ₹1,165.35 to make intra-day high of ₹1,250 before settling at ₹1,175.95, down 4.13 per cent over previous day’s close. However, ATL, APL and ATGL closed at 5 per cent lower circuit.
The company termed the reports claiming the NSDL action as “blatantly erroneous” and made with an intention to “deliberately mislead the investing community”.
The FPIs are Mauritius-based Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund which, according to reports, collectively held shares worth ₹43,500 crore of four Adani Group companies — AEL, ATL, ATGL and AGEL.