Without naming Adani, SEBI cites 'unusual price movement'

Amid a raging controversy over a meltdown in Adani group stocks, regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Saturday said it is committed to ensuring the stock market's integrity and all necessary surveillance measures are in place to address any excessive volatility in individual shares.

Without naming Adani group specifically, the capital markets watchdog said in a statement that unusual price movement in the stocks of a business conglomerate has been observed in the past week.

Officials confirmed that the statement has been issued in the wake of the Adani matter only.

Adani group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after United States-based activist short-seller Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation at the Gautam Adani-led group.

The Adani group has dismissed the charges as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.

The 10 listed Adani group firms have faced a combined erosion of over Rs 8.5 lakh crore in just six trading sessions.

Adani Enterprises also had to withdraw a Rs 20,000 crore share sale.

Several Opposition leaders and some experts have been also raising questions about SEBI not acting in the Adani matter, while Parliament proceedings have also got disrupted on this issue for two days.

Some political leaders are also believed to have written to SEBI and the government, demanding an investigation, while Opposition parties are also seeking a joint parliamentary committee probe.

'As part of its mandate, SEBI seeks to maintain orderly and efficient functioning of the market and has put in place a set of well-defined, publicly available surveillance measures (including the ASM framework) to address excessive volatility in specific stocks.

'This mechanism gets automatically triggered under certain conditions of price volatility in any stock,' the SEBI said.

Stock exchanges Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) have put three Adani group companies -- Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Ambuja Cements -- under their short-term additional surveillance measure (ASM), which basically means that intra-day trading would require a 100 per cent upfront margin and is aimed at curbing speculation and short-selling in these stocks.

SEBI further said that in all specific entity-related matters, if any information comes to its notice, then, as per extant policies, the same is examined and after due examination, appropriate action is taken.

'SEBI has consistently followed this approach on entity-level issues and would continue to do so in the future as well,' it added.

The regulator, however, stopped short of clearly mentioning whether it is conducting any probe in the matter or not.

SEBI further said the Indian financial market, as represented by Sensex and Nifty, has demonstrated ongoing stability and is continuing to function in a transparent, fair and efficient manner.

'On a longer-term basis also, Indian markets have been viewed positively by investors. A cross-country comparison of dollar-adjusted market returns with both peer and developed countries, during the past three years till date, places the Indian market as a positive outlier,' it noted.

The regulator said it is committed to ensuring market integrity and that the markets continue to have the appropriate structural strength to function in an uninterrupted, transparent and efficient manner as has been the case so far.