Adani plunges in Mumbai on founder's charges as Asian markets retreat

Pedestrians walk past a digital broadcast on the facade of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in Mumbai on November 21, 2024. [AFP]

Shares in Indian conglomerate Adani tanked on Thursday after its industrialist owner Gautam Adani was charged by US prosecutors with handing out more than $250 million in bribes for key contracts.

The painful losses at units of the Adani Group came as markets in most of Asia retreated as blockbuster earnings from chip titan Nvidia smashed forecasts but fell short of investor hopes, while bitcoin hit another record as it pushes towards the $100,000 mark.

Several listed subsidiaries of the Adani empire, which spans coal, airports, cement and media, collapsed in early trade, with some losing as much as 20 per cent.

The charges are another blow to the firm, which was sent reeling last year when a bombshell report from US investment firm Hindenburg Research claimed the conglomerate had engaged in a "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades".

The Adani Group on Thursday called the allegations "baseless".

The conglomerate's flagship Adani Enterprises dived almost 20 per cent, while several of its subsidiaries lost between 10 and 20 per cent.

However, Mumbai's Sensex index saw more limited losses, giving up around 0.6 per cent.

All eyes had been on the release from Nvidia, which has been at the forefront of a global tech surge that has helped push some markets to multiple records owing to voracious demand for all things linked to artificial intelligence.

And once again, the firm topped expectations, announcing Wednesday that it made a $19 billion profit on record high revenue in the July-September quarter, while sales reached $35.1 billion -- about $2 billion more than estimated.

However, its shares fell in after-hours trade, even as chief executive Jensen Huang declared that the "age of AI is in full steam, propelling a global shift to Nvidia computing" and that its keenly anticipated Blackwell processing platform is in full production.

Observers said investors had been hoping for an even bigger blowout report, with Bloomberg saying some had been hoping for sales of as much as $41 billion.

Its shares -- which have soared more than 200 per cent year to date -- dropped four per cent at one point after-hours.

Peak Nvidia?

With Nvidia now the world's most expensive listed company, its results have become a bellwether of the tech industry.

"I have a feeling we've reached peak Nvidia," said Pendal Group's Amy Xie Patrick on Bloomberg Television. "This is a stock that beat analyst estimates but didn't beat enough."

And SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes added: "The bigger question remains: where exactly is the bar for Nvidia now? With expectations veiled in sky-high optimism, even seasoned analysts struggle to get a clear read.

"With so many portfolios already brimming with Nvidia stock, some investors might see this quarter's results as a minor letdown."

But he added: "Still, the strength of the numbers, paired with the pipeline of Blackwell chip orders, is enough to keep the dream alive."

Most markets in Asia fell, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Jakarta, Taipei, Bangkok and Manila in negative territory.

Still, Shanghai and Wellington rose.

London, Frankfurt and Paris all rose.

Bitcoin topped out at $97,892 as it continued its march to the $100,000 mark on expectations Donald Trump will push through measures to ease regulations on cryptocurrencies. It has surged around 40 per cent since the US election at the start of the month.

Investors have also been spooked by developments in the Ukraine war after Russia said Kyiv had fired US-supplied missiles into the country. That was followed by reports that UK-supplied rockets had also been used.

Traders are also keeping watch on Trump's picks for his cabinet, with the fingering of China hawk Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary fuelling worries of another painful trade war.