Suspicious short-selling by 6 entities in Adani shares, says SC panel

Suspicious short-selling by 6 entities in Adani shares, says SC panel

Suspicious trading has been observed in Adani group shares by four foreign portfolio investors, one corporate and one individual, according to the Supreme Court-appointed panel’s report.

The trading pattern is suspicious because of the buildup of short positions by these entities in the Adani group scrips prior to the publication of the Hindenburg report and substantial profits earned by them by squaring off their positions after the publication of the report.

A detailed investigation is being carried out with respect to trading by these entities.

A total of 849 alerts had been received by capital markets regulator Sebi in Adani group scrips for the period between April 1, 2018 and December 31, 2022.

Of these, 603 alerts were related to price volume movements, while the remaining 246 were related to insider trading. The stock exchanges have submitted three examination reports to Sebi on which the work is in progress.

For Adani Enterprises, no evident pattern of manipulative contribution could be attributed to a single entity or a group of connected entities.

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The committee has asked the capital markets regulator to prepare detailed charts with data for price movements across all Adani group stocks and present the same for analysis.

Hindenburg’s report claimed that the Adani empire was the “biggest con in corporate history” engaged in a “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme”. Shares of Adani Group, which denied all allegations, likening the US investment firm’s report to an attack on India, fell after the Hindenburg report was published on January 24.