Adani Enterprises put under ASM framework by BSE, NSE

Adani Enterprises Ltd, the flagship company of the Adani group, was again put under the short-term additional surveillance measure (ASM) framework by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the BSE.

The short-term ASM mechanism gets triggered under certain conditions of price volatility in any stock. Bourses impose trading restrictions on stocks under the ASM framework to curb volatility and protect retail investors.

The Adani Enterprises stock was first put under the ASM framework in February, a week after U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research released its report.

"Applicable rate of margin shall be 50 per cent or existing margin whichever is higher, subject to maximum rate of margin capped at 100 per cent, with effect from May 26, 2023 on all open positions as on May 25, 2023 and new positions created from May 26, 2023," the NSE says in a circular.

Reacting to the development, shares of Adani Enterprises fell as much as 2.5% in intraday trade to ₹2,386 apiece on the NSE. The airport operator's market capitalisation stood at ₹2.75 lakh crore.

Adani Enterprises surged nearly 19% on Tuesday to ₹2,714 apiece on the NSE before falling 5.9% to ₹2,467 on Wednesday. Over the past three sessions, the stock has jumped 39.41% after a Supreme Court-constituted committee concluded that there was no regulatory failure on the allegations of stock price manipulation.

The Gautam Adani-led conglomerate registered its biggest single-day gains in the calendar year 2023 on Monday. In the first two days of this week, the combined market valuation of the ten listed Adani Group companies jumped by 1.45 lakh crore to ₹10,79,498 crore on May 23. However, shares of the ports-to-power conglomerate partially erased gains on Wednesday.

On March 2, the Supreme Court formed a panel headed by retired judge, Justice AM Sapre, to examine the alleged violation of market laws by Adani Group and its listed companies. The top court's expert committee includes former SBI chairman OP Bhatt, Justice JP Devdatt, veteran banker KV Kamath, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and advocate Somasekhar Sundaresan.

Last week, the SC-appointed panel said that market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) found that six entities took short positions before the Hindenburg report was released and profited by squaring off their positions. SEBI examined whether there has been any unusual trading pattern proximate to the release of the Hindenburg report.

"The trading pattern here is suspicious because of the build up of short positions by these entities in the Adani scrips prior to the Hindenburg Report, and substantial profits earned by them by squaring off their short positions after publication of the Hindenburg report on January 24, 2023," the panel said.

The Supreme Court had earlier granted SEBI an extension of three months till August 14, 2023, in relation to the market regulator's inquiry into the Adani Group-Hindenburg case. SEBI had sought additional six months' time to complete the probe in the Adani-Hindenburg case, saying this much time is required "to ensure that justice is carried out while keeping the interest of investors".