Mumbai. In a volatile trade, the local stock markets fell marginally on Monday. The market had initially fallen sharply after the report of American research and investment company Hindenburg Research against SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband for undeclared investment in foreign funds, but later the market was able to recover from the loss to a large extent due to the gains in private banks. The Sensex based on 30 shares had fallen sharply initially. However, later it closed at 79,648.92 points with a slight decline of 56.99 points or 0.07 percent.
In the morning trade, it fell to 479.78 points due to buying in the shares of Adani Group companies and major companies like Reliance Industries. Later, it gained momentum and climbed up to about 880 points from the day’s low. But it came down before the end of trading. 18 companies of Sensex were in loss while 12 were in profit. National Stock Exchange’s Nifty also closed at 24,347 points with a fall of 20.50 points i.e. 0.08 percent. During trading, it came down to 24,212.10 points and went up to 24,472.80 points.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Indian market closed stable. Initially, the market was affected by the Adani-Hindenburg-SEBI report. However, the market rejected it and took cues from the positive trend globally.” Among the 30 Sensex companies, Adani Ports, NTPC, Power Grid, State Bank of India, Nestle, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries and Tata Consultancy Services suffered the most losses. On the other hand, Axis Bank, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are among the stocks that made profits.
Hindenburg Research on Saturday accused market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson Madhavi Puri Buch and her husband of having stakes in a foreign fund linked to Adani. The report said that SEBI chairperson Buch and her husband Dhabal Buch have stakes in the foreign fund, which Vinod Adani, the elder brother of Adani Group chief Gautam Adani, used for alleged money laundering in the group. Buch and her husband Dhaval have termed the allegations baseless. The couple said that Hindenburg is attacking the credibility of the capital market regulator and is also trying to ‘assassinate’ the chairperson.
Adani Group termed the latest allegations of Hindenburg Research as malicious and selectively manipulated public information. The group said on Sunday that it has no commercial relationship with the chairperson of market regulator SEBI or her husband.
The shares of all the listed companies of the Adani Group registered a sharp decline in early trade. At the end of trading, the shares of eight companies of the group were in loss while two were in profit.
Prashant Tapase, Senior Vice President (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd. said, “The allegations against the SEBI chief in the Hindenburg report affected the market sentiment in early trade. However, it later gained momentum and remained in the green during the trade. But before the end of the trade, it came down marginally before selective profit booking.” He said, “If the dispute escalates, then it may affect the sentiment further and profit booking may continue. However, global indicators will give direction to the market.” The BSE Smallcap index, representing shares of small companies, rose 0.51 percent while the Midcap related to mid-sized companies rose marginally by 0.04 percent.
In other Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Hong Kong’s Hangseng were in profit while China’s Shanghai Composite was in loss. Tokyo market in Japan was closed due to holiday. There was a bullish trend during trading in European markets. US market was in profit on Friday. According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors were net buyers on Friday. They bought shares worth Rs 406.72 crore. Global oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.83 percent to $ 80.32 per barrel. BSE Sensex rose 819.69 points and NSE Nifty rose 250.50 points on Friday.