Contrary to fears of a massive fall owing to the publication of the Hindenburg Research report on Saturday, wherein the U.S. based shortseller accused the SEBI chief of having links with offshore funds used by the Adanis to allegedly jack up their share prices, the benchmark stock indices on Monday remained nearly calm and ended range-bound.

However, Adani group stocks bore the brunt and lost an estimated $13.4 billion in value, as per estimates by Reuters.

The S&P BSE Sensex, which opened 375 points down from Friday’s close, gradually recovered lost ground during the day and closed with a minor loss of 57 points, or 0.07%, at 79,649 points.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty-50 index closed with a loss of 20.50 points, or 0.08%, at 24,347.

“Domestic benchmark indices opened lower on Monday due to uncertainty stemming from Hindenburg’s allegations against SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband. Despite this uncertainty, Indian markets displayed resilience and settled the day on a flat to negative note,” said Hrishikesh Yedve, AVP Technical and Derivatives Research at Asit C. Mehta Investment Interrmediates Ltd.

‘Personal attack’

Elaborating on the lukewarm response from the markets, Arun Kejriwal, founder, Kejriwal Research & Investment Services said, “Investors and institutions by now are aware that this [Hindenburg Report] is a continuation of the previous report and this is full of personal attack on a regulator, which has issued a show-cause notice. That is why they have discounted the personal allegations made against the SEBI chief.”

He said the losses suffered by Adani group stocks this time were “too negligible” compared with last time when the first Hindenburg report on Adani was released 18 months ago. On Monday, eight out of 10 Adani group stocks closed with losses. These includedAdani Enterprises (-1.09%); Adani Ports (-2.02%); Adani Power (-0.65%); Adani Energy Solutions (-3.70%); Adani Total Gas (-4.03%); Adani Wilmar (-4.14%), NDTV (-3.08%), and ACC (-1.55%).

In January 2023, when the U.S. shortseller accused the Adani group of manipulating its share prices by making use of offshore funds, group company stocks had crashed about 10% each. Reportedly, the bonds and shares of Adani Group companies were devalued by more than $104 billion in market value, causing colossal losses to the Indian conglomerate and its founder.

This time, the impact was minimal as the latest report was targeted more at the SEBI chairperson rather than the Adani group per se, analysts said.