THE ROLE OF INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL RESEARCH REPORTS ON STOCK MARKET: A CASE STUDY BASED ON RECENT TURMOIL IN ADANI GROUP

Abstract

Recently, US short-seller Hindenburg Research LLC released a forensic financial research report on the Adani Group on 24th January, 2023 and they raised some allegations against them mainly on misgovernance, accounting fraud, money laundering and price manipulation which results an immediate ruinous effect on Indian stock market. Due to this report, Adani Group’s market capitalization has been plunged down nearly 9 lakhs crore within a week. Also, Adani Enterprise Ltd. flagship firm of the group, unexpectedly announced the withdrawal of its Follow-on public offer (FPO) of 20,000 crores even after successfully completion of its process. The need for this study arises, as this kind of report of foreign private company is having huge impact not only on the concerned company or industry but also on the concerned economy. In this backdrop, the study is an attempt to examine the role of independent financial research reportson corporate sector in particular. Further, this study is an exploratory attempt to inquest the reliability and credibility of such kind of the independent financial research reports in different aspects such as accounting, corporate governance, regulation and so on.