Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Friday plunged sharply in the afternoon trade. Sensex tanked up to 1100 points, while the NSE Nifty50 was trading at 17,561, down 331 points. Head of Union Budget and US Fed meeting outcome next week, the fear gauge index India VIX shot up to 21 per cent.
Adani Enterprises and Adani Port are among the biggest losers on the Nifty50 as their stocks fell 18.26 per cent and 16.76 per cent respectively. Adani Enterprises fell from its last trading price of Rs 2,770.15 to the day low of Rs 2,712.00, while the Adani Port was done from Rs 593.60 to Rs 537.00.
On the 30-share Sensex platform, SBI, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Reliance declined sharply and were trading in the red. On the flip side, only seven stocks were trading in the positive territory – Tata Motors, ITC, M&M, UltraTech, Bajaj Fivserv, and NTPC.
Bank stocks were among the worst affected as Nifty Bank lost over 1,300 points or 3.3 per cent.
The fall in share prices of Adani Enterprises triggered an automatic 105-minute trading halt, reported news agency AFP. According to the report firm’s subsidiary Adani Total Gas’s trading was also halted.
This comes after a US investment firm Hindenburg Research alleged that Adani Enterprises has committed “brazen” corporate fraud. Hindenburg Research has alleged that Adani Group had used undisclosed related-party transactions and earnings manipulation to “maintain the appearance of financial health and solvency” of its listed business units.
The report was released the same day when Adani Enterprises’ Rs 20,000-crore follow-on public offering (FPO) was to open for anchor investors. The report triggered a price loss of shares and eroded their market value by almost Rs 85,761 crore ($10.5 billion).
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices lost 0.6 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively.
Sectorally, auto, FMCG, and pharma indices were the only pockets resisting the market crash while holding tepid gains. Oil and gas pocket shed the most with a fall of 5 per cent.
In the previous session on Wednesday, the S&P BSE Sensex tanked 774 points (1.3 per cent) to close at 60,205 after it recovered from its intra-day low of 60,081. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty lost 226 points to close at 17,892.