Shares of cement major Ambuja Cements Ltd and ACC slumped for the second session on Friday, two days after the short seller Hindenburg Research in a report alleged Gautam Adani-led Adani Group of indulging in fraud, stock market manipulation and money laundering. The stocks of Ambuja Cements and ACC, which were acquired by Adani Group last year, fell by up to 17% during the session.
On Friday, the share price of cement major Ambuja Cements tumbled as much as 17.28% at ₹380.60. During the session, the company's stock opened lower at ₹457.95 against its previous closing price of ₹460.10. The company’s stock is trading lower than the 5-day, 20-day, 50-day, 100-day and 200-day moving averages. In the past one year, the company’s stock has surged 10.89%. The company’s stock has lost approximately 15.42% in the last two sessions. The market capitalisation of Ambuja Cement stood at ₹76,197.28 crore, with 20,42,881 shares changing hands in the BSE against the two-week average of 1.97 lakh shares.
The share price of ACC Ltd fell as much as 20.16% on Friday to hit a 52-week low of ₹1,733. At the time of publishing, the company’s stocks stumbled 14.09% intra-day at ₹1,858. The company’s stock is trading lower than the 5-day, 20-day, 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages. On Friday, the company’s stocks opened a tad higher at ₹2,183 against the closing price of the previous session at ₹2,166.60. In the last two sessions, the company lost 15.42% in valuation. It has declined 12.98% in the past one year. The company’s market capitalisation stood at ₹34,745.34 crore.
Adani Group acquired the entire stake in Ambuja Cement and ACC from the Swiss firm Holcim in September last year. Touted as the largest acquisition by Adani Group, the value of the Holcim stake and open offer consideration for Ambuja Cements and ACC stood at about ₹51,800 crore.
The shares of Adani Gas and Adani Transmission were also down up to 20% on Friday. The share price of Adani Enterprises slumped by 16.96%, whereas the shares of Adani Ports, and Adani Wilmar fell by 15.77% and 4.99%, respectively. In the past two sessions, Adani Group has lost ₹3.5 lakh crore in m-cap.
Stating the Hindenburg report to be “maliciously mischievous,” Adani Group is planning to take legal action against Hindenburg Research after the U.S.-based short-seller accused the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate of "pulling the largest con in corporate history."
"The maliciously mischievous, unresearched report published by Hindenburg Research on January 24, 2023, has adversely affected the Adani Group, our shareholders and investors. The volatility in Indian stock markets created by the report is of great concern and has led to unwanted anguish for Indian citizens," Jatin Jalundhwala, legal head, Adani Group, said. It said the investigation into accounting or fraud-type assertions is devoid of facts as eight out of nine public listed entities of the conglomerate are audited by "one of the Big 6."
