By Savio Shetty and Abhishek Vishnoi
Adani Enterprises Ltd., the flagship of Asia’s richest man Gautam Adani, is back to where it stood just before the conglomerate’s crisis began more than three years ago: the best-performing stock on India’s equity benchmark.
The shares have surged 34% so far in 2026, putting the company on track to end the year as the top gainer on the NSE Nifty 50 Index. It last held that spot at the end of 2022, weeks before Hindenburg Research’s short-seller report in January 2023 sparked a selloff that wiped more than $150 billion off the power-to-ports group’s market value at one point.
The rally has come alongside share purchases from investors including The Capital Group, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and SBI Funds Management Ltd. as the conglomerate rebuilds investor support after the short-seller attack, bribery allegations against Gautam and Sagar Adani by US authorities and scrutiny from India’s market regulator. Morgan Stanley in June rated Adani Enterprises as overweight, initiating the Wall Street bank’s coverage on the stock.
The revival is refocusing the spotlight on Adani as a proxy for India’s infrastructure boom. Investors are putting money into the conglomerate’s ports, airports and power businesses, while overseas lender are also showing more willingness to take exposure. AdaniConneX Pvt., the group’s data-center joint venture with EdgeConneX, recently secured a loan of about $800 million to fund its expansion.
“Adani is essentially playing the India growth story through infrastructure,” said Vinit Bolinjkar, head of research at Ventura Securities, who has had a buy rating on the flagship since 2022. “Few businesses can offer the kind of 20- to 30-year visibility that Adani’s infrastructure businesses can.”
The comeback got another boost last week. A US District Judge permanently dismissed the securities fraud charges against the Adanis, ending a 2024 case that had hung over the group. And the index provider MSCI Inc.’s latest review raised the free-float factors for several Adani firms, increasing their weights in its gauges. The changes can spur buying from passive funds that track the indexes.
The rebound still has some way to go. Adani Enterprises has coverage from just four brokerages, the least among Indian companies valued at more than ₹4 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Meanwhile, foreign holdings in the company sank to a record low in June, according to data from Prime Infobase.
Part of that decline in foreign ownership also reflects global funds reducing their exposure to Indian equities earlier this year.
The business itself carries long-term risks. Infrastructure projects can take years to pay off, leaving Adani vulnerable to refinancing risks and regulatory changes, Morgan Stanley said in the June note.
Still, the conglomerate remains a conduit for investors betting on India’s infrastructure story and willing to take on more risk. That interest has added more than ₹4 trillion in market value for group stocks this year, helping propel Gautam Adani back to the top of Asia’s rich list.
“India’s infrastructure cycle provides the earnings runway, but investors returning to Adani are making an active bet on legal normalization, funding access and execution,” said Maxence Visseau, chief investment officer of Arkevium Capital in Dubai. “The arrival of Capital Group, Qatar Holding and other institutions through large block trades is an early validation.”