SC gives clean chit to Adani Group, says 'no pattern of artificial trading was found'

A Supreme Court-appointed expert panel said it found no evidence to indicate regulatory mechanisms' failure after the sharp rise of Adani Group stocks, and that the market is not 'unduly volatile'.

The Adani Group has received a clean chit from a Supreme Court-appointed team of specialists looking into the consequences from the Hindenburg claims, and stated that there was no regulatory failure on the side of market regulator SEBI.

The Adani Group did not manipulate prices, according to the Supreme Court panel of subject-matter experts, and the conglomerate has taken the appropriate measures to reassure ordinary investors. The group's mitigating actions had aided in boosting investor confidence, and the equities are currently steady, according to the panel.

The committee found no pattern of artificial trading or wash trades among the same parties multiple times. The committee made it quite obvious that the regulator had failed to demonstrate how its suspicions could be turned into a solid basis for pursuing a claim of infringement.

Foreign portfolio investors in Adani Group stocks are compliant with SEBI's regulations, the committee said. SEBI was tasked with investigating claims of Adani stock price manipulation in the wake of the Hindenburg report. 

The committee was established by the apex court following allegations made in a report by the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research that the Adani group had engaged in "brazen stock manipulation" and "accounting frauds" for decades. Even though the conglomerate has refuted the short seller's accusations, the Adani group has seen its market value drop by more than $100 billion since the publication of the study.

This comes as the Supreme Court on Wednesday gave SEBI a three-month extension, till August 14, to wrap up its investigation into the claims of stock price manipulation made against the business.

A short-seller headquartered in the United States named Hindenburg Research presented multiple governance issues about the Adani group in January, arguing that the ports-to-energy conglomerate was improperly using tax havens and manipulating the stock. However, the group has denied all the allegations.