Even as the political slugfest triggered by the Hindenburg report against Adani Group continues, the Norway wealth fund sold shares of three Adani Group companies worth over $200 million since the beginning of the year. The fund has no exposure left in the beleaguered Adani Group, it clarified on Thursday.
The investor revealed that it sold shares in Adani Total Gas, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, and Adani Green Energy.
According to news agency Reuters, Christopher Wright, the fund's head of ESG risk monitoring, said, "Since year-end, we have further reduced in Adani companies. We have no exposure left.... We have monitored Adani for many years (on ESG) issues, many on their handling of environmental risks.”
Meanwhile, financial index provider MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) said some Adani securities should no longer be designated as free float, in the wake of the allegations of accounting fraud, stock manipulation, and money laundering, levelled against the Adani Group by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research.
According to MSCI, free float refers to the proportion of shares outstanding available for purchase in the public equity markets by international investors.
According to analysts, a change in free float status could lead to weightings of MSCI index constituents being altered, leading to further pressure on Adani stocks as many of the global investors are aligned to such indexes, reports Reuters.
Meanwhile, reacting to the MSCI move, Hindenburg founder Nathan tweeted saying, "We view this as validation of our findings".
After a brief respite in the past two days, Adani shares, except Adani Wilmar, faced selling pressure on Thursday, with the flagship company Adani Enterprises falling more than 11 per cent. Adani Ports fell nearly three per cent, while Adani Power, Adani Transmission, Adani Total Gas, and Adani Green Energy fell by five per cent each.