Adani Group stocks experienced sharp declines on Thursday, October 8, with multiple counters falling as much as 10% amid a wider market sell-off. According to ET Now, Adani Green Energy plunged by 10% to an intraday low of ₹1,208 per share, while Adani Enterprises declined as much as 7.1% to an intraday low of ₹2,547. The benchmark NSE Nifty 50 also declined more than 1.5% during intraday trading, with the index trading at 22,285.90, down 1.40% from its previous close. Other Adani Group stocks also traded lower, with Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone falling 4.3% to ₹1,674.20, and Adani Total Gas down 2.78%. The decline came as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.5% on Wednesday, marking its first rate hike in nearly four years.
The sell-off resulted in massive investor wealth erasure across Adani Group companies, with more than ₹24,400 crore wiped out from Adani Enterprises alone as its market capitalisation slipped to ₹3.47 lakh crore. According to ET Now, Adani Ports erased ₹15,551 crore of investor wealth as its market capitalisation fell to ₹3.88 lakh crore. The broader market sentiment remained weak with over 2,955 stocks in the red out of 3,662 total trading stocks, while 143 stocks hit the lower circuit and 243 stocks touched their 52-week low. India's volatility index, India VIX, spiked 11.1% to a 7-session high, reflecting the intense selling pressure across markets.
Despite the sharp market decline, Adani Enterprises received a significant long-term rating upgrade from CARE Ratings, with the rating agency upgrading its long-term rating to CARE AA; Stable from CARE AA-; Stable, marking the highest-ever rating in the company's credit history. As reported by The Economic Times, CARE Ratings also reaffirmed the company's short-term rating at CARE A1+. The upgrade reflects the strengthened financial risk profile of Adani Enterprises following an equity raise of ₹15,000 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) in July 2026, as well as the execution of a subscription agreement for the sale of a 5.54% stake in its wholly owned subsidiary Adani Airports Holdings Limited (AAHL) at a pre-money valuation of ₹1.67 lakh crore. AAHL expects to receive ₹9,825 crore by July 2027 from the stake sale, significantly enhancing financial flexibility for the company.
The sell-off was attributed to multiple factors including Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) outflow, elevated crude oil prices, and changes in monetary policy. As per ET Now, over the last 12 months, Indian primary markets saw FII net inflows of ₹85,500 crore, while secondary markets witnessed FII net outflows of ₹3.65 lakh crore. Elevated crude oil prices with Brent crude trading around the $104-a-barrel mark and the dollar holding near its strongest level in a year-and-a-half further pressured Indian markets. The RBI's shift in policy stance to "calibrated tightening" from "neutral" signaled that rate cuts are off the table in the near term, with further hikes possible amid rising inflation, a weak rupee, and high crude oil prices. All sectoral indices were trading in the red and crashed over 1.5%, with technical factors adding pressure as several group stocks are trading below key moving averages.
