Coal India tops Sensex after PSU says there is no coal shortage in country

Shares of the state-run coal mining company Coal India Ltd (CIL) advanced more than 2% on Monday after the PSU said that India is not facing any scarcity of coal and the output of Coal India is more than the country’s power demand. Coal India – largest producer of coal in the world had registered a high growth rate of 28% output in FY17 over the last fiscal, while the average rise in power demand in the country was at 10.3%, said Chairman and Managing Director Gopal Singh.

The stock of the mining behemoth rose as much as 2.66% to the day’s high of Rs 244.7 on BSE today and was the second largest contributor to the gains of the benchmark Sensex. Meanwhile, the 30-share barometer was trading 0.33% lower at 31,787.28 points, mainly due to the sell-off in the shares of heavyweight companies — HDFC, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank and L&T.

Coal India is fully capable to fulfill the coal demand in India, MD Gopal Singh said, adding the company has plans to open new mines in the future. Singh, who is the head of Central Coalfields Ltd, was given the additional charge of CMD of Coal India on 1 September, following the retirement of Sutirtha Bhattacharya. He also made it clear that there would be no privatisation of the state-owned mining major.

Talking about the Magadh coal mine in Jharkhand, which is the biggest open cast mine in Asia, Singh said that coal output in the mine has been reduced due to dispatch-related problems. The output is likely to increase after completion of the miner’s Tori-Shivpur rail project, he said.

Earlier yesterday Coal India said in its annual report that the efforts to buy coking coal mines overseas by state-owned CIL in Australia are in process as the company looks to supplement the requirement of country’s metallurgical coal. PTI also reported citing Steel Minister Birender Singh, Coal India, and Bharat Coking Coal have agreed to set up 12 new coking coal washeries by 2019-20.

Coal India Ltd