Asia report: Stocks mixed as Adani crisis deepens

Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Friday as Adani Enterprises continued to freefall in an ongoing sell-off triggered by US short seller Hindenburg after it published allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

India’s S&P Sensex rose 0.38% despite the sell off. Adani Group founder and chairman Gautam Adani’s net worth fell further overnight, and now sits at number 21 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He has lost a total of $59.2bn in net worth in the year-to-date to $63.1bn.

Traders sent shares in the listed flagship Adani Enterprises down more than 25% shortly after markets opened in Mumbai on Friday. Group entities Adani Green Energy and Adani Ports, were also down sharply.

More than $115bn has been wiped from the value of Adani companies in the two weeks since the Hindenburg allegations were published.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.5%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was flat the Caixin purchasing managers’ index showed services activity in China picked up in January.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.2% as the au Jibun Bank Japan Services Purchasing Managers’ Index for January marked further growth for the month.

In South Korea, the Kospi also rose 0.47% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.62% to 7,558.1 as investors digest new housing loan commitments for December that fell 4.3%.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com