In Friday’s trade, the share price of Adani Enterprises Ltd – the flagship company of the group – fell 35% to its lowest level since March 2021. It lost about $33.6 billion, representing a 70% drop from the previous week.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd was down 14%, while Adani Transmission Ltd and Adani Green Energy Ltd slumped 10% each. Adani Total Gas Ltd – a joint venture with France’s Total Energy SE – fell 5%.
“Contagion concerns are growing but still confined to the banking sector. The focus remains on further risks of index exclusion,” said Charu Chanana of Saxo Markets in Singapore.
On Thursday, S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would remove major firm Adani Enterprises Ltd from its widely used sustainability indices on February 7, making the shares less attractive to environmentally conscious investors.
“One of the big risk factors to watch right now is whether more indices remove Adani shares,” Channa said. “This could result in foreign outflows as funds sell Adani shares, further exacerbating trust issues.”
Hindenburg said in its report that major listed Adani companies had “substantial debt” and shares of seven Adani listed firms fell by 85% at what it called sky-high valuations. It also alleged stock manipulation.