The stock market opened lower on Monday, August 12, tracking losses in Reliance Industries Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd. As of 9:15 AM, the NSE Nifty 50 was down by 86.50 points or 0.35% at 24,281.00, while the BSE Sensex dropped by 246.38 points to 79,459.53.
Adani Group stocks fell by up to 4% following claims by US short-seller Hindenburg Research that Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch had interests in offshore funds based in Bermuda and Mauritius. According to the US short-seller, funds were used by Gautam Adani's brother Vinod Adani to acquire and trade significant shares in the Adani Group, the report claimed.
In early trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 375.79 points to 79,330.12, and the NSE Nifty dropped 108.25 points to 24,259.25. The biggest laggards among the 30 Sensex firms were Adani Ports, NTPC, Power Grid, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, and Titan.
The Sebi chief said that the investment in the fund referred by Hindenburg was made in 2015 when she and her husband were private citizens living in Singapore almost two years before she joined SEBI as a whole-time member.
Also Read | Hindenburg Research Says SEBI Chief Madhabi Puri Buch’s Response Raises New Critical Questions.
“The decision to invest in this fund was because the Chief Investment Officer, Anil Ahuja, is Dhaval’s childhood friend from school and IIT Delhi and, being an ex-employee of Citibank, JP Morgan and 3i Group plc, had many decades of strong investing career," Madhabi issued in her statement on Hindenburg Research claimed.