By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
(Reuters) – India’s equity benchmarks fell on Friday after a rally on U.S. rate cuts and trade progress, while Adani stocks jumped as the markets regulator dismissed some allegations short seller Hindenburg had brought against the conglomerate.
Adani group companies jumped between 0.2%-9% after the Securities and Exchange Board of India dismissed two charges leveled against billionaire Gautam Adani and his companies by U.S.- based Hindenburg Research.
The Nifty 50 eased 0.39% to 25,323.7 and the BSE Sensex lost 0.44% to 82,641.38 as of 10:14 a.m. IST.
The 50-stock index had gained 1.4% and the BSE Sensex rose 1.5% in the last three sessions, on U.S. rate cut and prospects of progress in India-U.S. trade talks.
Ten of the 16 major sectors fell on Friday and the broader small-caps and mid-caps rose 0.2% each.
While the SEBI has cleared two charges against Adani group firms, another 22 orders on allegations ranging from insider trading to violation of minimum public float norms are pending.
“The regulator’s decision removes a significant overhang and is likely to bolster institutional investor confidence in the Adani Ports,” said ICICI Securities in a note.
Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports were the top two percentage gainers on Nifty 50.
However, profit-taking gripped India’s equity benchmarks after a recent rally, with IT and financials losing 0.5% each.
India’s Nifty logged gains in 11 of the last 12 sessions and is trading just about 3.5% below the record high levels hit in September last year.
Investor sentiment has also been dampened by the revocation of sanctions relief by the U.S. for India at Iran’s Chabahar port, said Devarsh Vakil, head of prime research at HDFC Securities.
Among individual stocks, JSW Energy gained 2% after Jefferies reiterated “buy”, and projected a 4x jump in core profit by fiscal year 2030.
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
