Surveillance measures in place: SEBI on crash in Adani stocks

“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,” Sebi said in a statement.

Without naming the Rs 9.1 lakh crore worth carnage in Adani stocks, the regulator said during the past week, unusual price movement in the stocks of a business conglomerate has been observed.

Sebi said in all specific entity related matters, if any information comes to the watchdog’s 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 future as well,” the statement said adding that it is committed to ensuring market integrity and to ensuring 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.

On the issue of stability of financial markets, it said the 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 3 years till date, places the Indian market as a positive outlier,” it said.Sebi’s statement comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the regulators are independent and will take their own actions with regard to Adani group concerns.

“It’ll be regulators who’ll do their job. RBI made statement, prior to that banks, LIC came out & told about their exposure (to Adani group).

Regulators independent of govt, they’re left to themselves to do what is appropriate so market is well regulated. So the regulators will do their jobs,” Sitharaman said in a press conference earlier in the day.

Following the non-stop bloodbath in share prices of Adani Enterprises, billionaire Gautam Adani was forced to withdraw Rs 20,000 crore FPO despite oversubscription. The market rout has also forced Adani Enterprises to shelve plans to raise close to $500 million via international bonds.

Global ratings agency S&P Global Ratings downgraded the outlook on Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Adani Electricity to “negative” from “stable”, citing that the risks and concerns triggered by Hindenburg Research report have not been factored into its ratings.