The government on Monday told the Supreme Court that it has no objection to a proposal mooted by the apex court for setting up a panel of domain experts to look into strengthening the regulatory mechanisms for the stock market.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), said that the market regulator and other statutory bodies are equipped to deal with the present situation arising out of the Hindenburg report. “The government has no objection to forming a committee. But, the remit of the committee, we can suggest. We can provide names in a sealed cover,” Mehta said.
He said that any “unintentional” message on setting up of the panel may have some adverse impact on the inflow of money.
The SC bench, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, which was hearing pleas relating to the rout in Adani Group’s shares after the Hindenburg report, has now listed the matter for next hearing on Friday.
On February 10, the bench had favoured creating a robust mechanism to regulate the stock market and had sought the views of the Centre and market regulator on public interest litigations alleging exploitation of innocent investors and artificial crashing of Adani Group’s stock value.
The shares of seven companies, which are part of the Adani Group, have lost more than $120 billion in market value since the January 24 report by Hindenburg Research, which accused it of improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation. On its part, Adani Group has denied the charges. However, the group’s flagship firm, Adani Enterprises, called off its secondary share sale offer because of the rout in share prices.
On February 10, Moody’s Investors Service had also changed its outlook on four companies of the Adani Group to negative from stable after a significant fall in the market value post the Hindenburg report.
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The companies whose ratings have been revised are Adani Green Energy, Adani Green Energy Restricted Group, Adani Transmission Step-One and Adani Electricity Mumbai. The rating agency maintained the stable outlook on four other group companies – Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani International Container Terminal Private, Adani Green Energy Restricted Group and Adani Transmission Restricted Group 1.
On Monday, Adani Enterprises shares closed down 7.03% at Rs ,717.55. During the day, the shares of the flagship firm fell 10% to `1,662.65, which is also its lower circuit level on the BSE.