LIC investors ‘spooked’ over rout in Adani stocks, investments in latter’s firms turn negative

New Delhi: The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) & its investors are the latest ‘victims’ of persistent rout in Adani Group stocks. With most of flagship scrips of billionaire Gautam Adani-led behemoth on a downward spiral, this has hurt many associated firms deeply and exposed their investments to big losses.

LIC, nation’s largest insurance firm is paying a heavy price for exposure in the Adani Group stocks. On Thursday, its investments in various firms of the Group turned negative, which means its principal invested amount is witnessing a decline on back of free-fall in Adani’s scrips.

According to available information, India’s largest insurer had made an investment of about Rs 30,127 crore in various firms of Gautam Adani-led firm. Today, this value of investment turned negative and slumped below Rs 30,000 crore mark.

On January 27, 2 days after damaging report by Hindenburg Research, the value of LIC investment in Adani Group stood at Rs Rs 56,142 crore, the buying price of which was Rs 30,127 crore. A month ago in December, the LIC was winning handsome returns with its investments in beleaguered firm as its value stood at Rs 62,550 crore.

After the US short-selling firm brought a series of charges against the Indian behemoth, all 10 major listed companies of Adani Group went into a tailspin. The carnage that began a day after Hindenburg report has been unhindered and most of the flagship firms have logged slump of more than 50% in their stock value.

February 22 was one of the worst days for Adani Group as it lost more than Rs 50,000 crore in valuation in a single day. This came in the backdrop of fresh allegations by Wikipedia editors that the powerful conglomerate fudged entries on its portal.

On February 22, the value of investments in Adani Group stood at about Rs 30,221 crore barely above the principal amount. As the free-fall in group scrips persisted, the LIC value went in the negative, below Rs 30,000 crore.

The bloodbath in Adani Group stocks has stripped the company of enormous wealth and reports suggest that it has lost more than $ 100 billion in valuations, in less than a month of turbulence & turmoil in its stocks.