No human role in index changes: NSE

Mumbai: In the face of criticism from several quarters about inclusion of two of the 10 Adani Group entities in some of NSE’s indices, the stock exchange on Sunday said that all such decisions to include and exclude stocks from its indices are taken according to pre-set rules. The NSE also said that its surveillance actions on stocks are pre-decided rules and are completely non-discretionary.

Since the US-based shortseller Hindenburg Research came out with a damning report about the Adani Group, alleging stock manipulation, accounting fraud and corporate malfeasance, there have been pressure on the markets regulator and also the bourses to take action against listed companies belonging to the group. The group had denied all the allegations in the report, yet its combined market cap is now down more than 50% from its pre-Hindenburg level of Rs 19.2 lakh crore.As the controversy about Adani Group’s stocks raged, NSE Indices, the NSE arm that manages all the indices for the bourse, said on February 17 that — effective March 31 — it was including Adani Wilmar and Adani Power in some of its indices and at the same time was also excluding these stocks from some other indices.

Index inclusion and exclusion of stocks on a periodic basis, by NSE Indices, “are based on index methodologies that are objective, non-discretionary, rules based, pre-announced and transparent”. Once the index criteria has been fixed, “NSE Indices or its committees exercise no human discretion in deciding on inclusion or exclusion of stocks in any of its indices”, it said in a statement.

The NSE also said that its “surveillance actions on stocks (are) non-discretionary, pre-announced, automatically applicable, (and) transparent”, and those regulations are applicable to all eligible stocks.