Coal India slips on divestment buzz

Coal India fell 4.17% to Rs 360.10 at 11:09 IST on BSE on report the government is planning to sell a 10% stake in the state-run coal miner.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 25.07 points, or 0.09%, to 27,433.31.

On BSE, so far 1.26 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 2.22 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 374.05 and a low of Rs 356.75 so far during the day. The stock hit a record high of Rs 423.85 on 11 June 2014. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 240.50 on 26 February 2014.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 9 January 2015, rising 4.07% compared with 1.22% fall in the Sensex. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 9.45% as against Sensex’s 3.08% rise.

The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 6316.36 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Last week, finance minister Arun Jaitley had reportedly said that the last quarter of the current fiscal year ending March 2015 (FY 2015) will see a big disinvestment push.

According to the media report, the Coal India stock sale plan had been held up because of lack of policy clarity on mine auctions, following the cancellation of blocks by the Supreme Court in September, and opposition by unions.

Both issues policy clarity on mine auctions and opposition by unions have been resolved: the first through an ordinance and the second through negotiations. A five-day strike called by 5.5 lakh Coal India workers last week was called off in two days after Coal, Power and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal met unions to explain the government’s position and addressed their concerns, the report added.

Coal India’s consolidated net profit fell 28.2% to Rs 2192.38 crore on 0.6% rise in total income to Rs 17704.93 crore in Q2 September 2014 over Q2 September 2013.

Coal India is an organized state owned coal mining corporate.