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POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Holdings, parent of South Korea's biggest steelmaker POSCO, posted on Friday a 46.7% drop in last year's annual operating profit due to a four-month suspension of its major steel plant in the country following a typhoon and flooding in September.

It reported an operating profit of 4.9 trillion won ($3.97 billion) for 2022, versus a 9.2 trillion won profit a year earlier.

The company had estimated earlier the flooding would cost it 1.3 trillion won in 2022, with the majority of the charge reflected in the fourth quarter.

POSCO said earlier this month operation at all of the 17 rolling mills at its plant in Pohang, southeast of the country, had been fully restored, 135 days after a typhoon caused a nearby river to overflow.

The consolidated operating profit fell in line with a 4.9 trillion won profit estimate the company provided last week.

Shares of the seven listed companies under Adani Group slid further on Friday after the release of a short seller report earlier this week, with a response from the Indian conglomerate doing little to curb the market rout.

Adani Transmission Ltd (NS:ADAI) and Adani Total Gas Ltd (NS:ADAG) were the worst hit, falling 14.5% and 17.6%, respectively, while Adani Green Energy Ltd (NS:ADNA) tumbled nearly 13%. Adani Wilmar Ltd (NS:ADAW) and Adani Power Ltd (NS:ADAN) lost 5% each, while Adani Enterprises Ltd (NS:ADEL) and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (NS:APSE) lost 4.8% and 5.5%, respectively.

The conglomerate denied the allegations of fraud and market manipulation raised by the Hindenburg report, and said it was considering legal action against the short seller, calling the report "maliciously mischievous, and unresearched” in a statement released to Indian exchanges.

Hindenburg in turn said it welcomed the threat of legal action, inviting the conglomerate to file suit in the U.S.

“We have a long list of documents we would demand in a legal discovery process,” Hindenburg said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The 106-page report called Adani the “largest corporate con in corporate history,” and raised concerns over the conglomerate’s highly leveraged debt position, which it said represented an at least 85% overvaluation in its stock prices.

The report also accused Adani of fraud and stock market manipulation, and claimed that Indian regulators were complicit in the fraud.

Adani Group’s shares had plummeted on Wednesday after the release of the report, with the firm’s U.S.-listed bonds also declining. Hindenburg said it had no direct exposure to Adani shares, and had taken a short position in the firm through its U.S. bonds and other derivatives.

The Hindenburg report came just days before Adani commenced a $2.45 billion secondary share sale.

Selling spilled over to broader Indian markets, with both the BSE Sensex 30 and Nifty 50 indexes falling 0.9% and 1.1%, respectively. Indian bank stocks bore the brunt of selling, as markets also feared a potential contagion in the sector from any losses in Adani.

Most Asian currencies kept to a tight range on Friday in anticipation of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, while the Japanese yen rose as higher-than-expected Tokyo inflation readings fed into expectations for more hawkish moves by the Bank of Japan.

The yen rose 0.2% against the dollar and was among the best-performing regional currencies for the day, as data showed inflation in Japan’s capital rose to a new 41-year high in December. The reading heralds a similar rise in countrywide inflation, and is likely to invite more hawkish measures from the BOJ in the coming months.

While the central bank ducked expectations for more monetary tightening measures during its January meeting, markets expect rising inflation to eventually force the BOJ’s hand. Such a scenario is positive for the yen, which was battered by a growing rift between local and U.S. interest rates in 2022.

Broader Asian currencies kept to a tight range as overnight data showed that the U.S. economy grew more than expected in the fourth quarter. While the reading helped ease concerns over an immediate recession, it also showed that the Federal Reserve has more economic headroom to hike interest rates.

Focus is now squarely on personal consumption expenditures inflation data due later on Friday, which is the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge. While the reading is expected to have eased in December from the prior month, it is still expected to remain well above the Fed’s 2% annual target.

The dollar recovered some lost ground against a basket of currencies, with the dollar index and dollar index futures rising 0.1% each in Asian trade.

The greenback will be closely watched in the run-up to a Fed meeting next week. While the central bank is widely expected to hike interest rates by 25 basis points, its signals on future rate hikes will be closely watched.

Focus also turns to the reopening of Chinese markets on Monday after a week-long holiday, with a slew of economic readings from the country also due next week. The Chinese yuan fell 0.3% in offshore trade, but was set to gain 0.4% this week.

China-focused currencies such as the Taiwan dollar fell 0.3% on Friday, while the Singapore dollar and the Thai baht fell 0.2% and 0.3% each.