Shares of most of the Adani Group companies fell in trade on Friday with flagship Adani Enterprises falling as much as 10 per cent after the global index provider MSCI decided to reduce the weightage of four Adani group firms in its indices following a review.
Amid volatile trading in the market, seven Adani Group firms were in the negative territory while three others were in the green.
Adani Enterprises plunged 10 per cent to Rs 1,734.60 per share, its lower price band on the BSE, and the company's market valuation dropped to Rs 2.14 lakh crore.
Adani Power was locked in 5 per cent lower circuit at Rs 164.30. Adani Transmission dropped 5 per cent at lower circuit of Rs 1,186.15, Adani Green Energy fell to lower circuit of Rs 723.90 and Adani Total Gas dropped 5 per cent to hit lower circuit of Rs 1,258.25.
Shares of NDTV declined 2.56 per cent to Rs 211 and ACC fell 0.84 per cent to Rs 1,900.35 on the bourse.
However, three other Adani group firms were trading higher with Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone rising 2 per cent to Rs 593.60, Ambuja Cements advancing 1 per cent to Rs 361.90 and Adani Wilmar rising 1 per cent to Rs 445.15.
Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC securities, told news agency PTI that MSCI Inc has cut its determined free float for four companies in the Adani Group -- Adani Enterprises, Adani Total Gas, Adani Transmission and ACC.
"Free float measures for four other companies in the group remained the same. The cuts, which will come into force at the end of February, will result in smaller weightings for those stocks in MSCI's closely watched indices, triggering outflows as investors who track the benchmarks reduce their shareholdings," he said.
Citing brokerage reports, Jasani said that given the reduction in weightage, Adani Transmission, Adani Total Gas, and Adani Enterprises might see the heaviest outflow among all.
Earlier, MSCI Inc said it has received feedback from a range of market participants concerning the eligibility and free float determination of specific securities associated with the Adani Group for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes (GIMI).
MSCI defines the free float of a security as the proportion of shares outstanding that is considered available for purchase in the public equity markets by international investors.
In the morning session, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 139.83 points or 0.23 per cent lower at 60,666.39 points.
The group's stocks have lost around Rs 9.4 lakh crore or about 49 per cent of their combined market capitalisation since January 24, when a US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research came out with its adverse report about the Adani Group.
