Mining, steel and power stocks down

Scrips of mining and power generation firms slumped Wednesday after the Supreme Court cancelled all the coal blocks allocated from 1993 to 2011.

Hit by the apex court's judgment, stocks of mining, metal and power majors such as Jindal Steel and Power, Tata Steel, Bhushan Steel, Hindalco Industries and Monnet Ispat and Energy fell.

At the close of the day's trading at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), metal and power index were down. The S&P BSE power index was lower by 7.40 percent and metal index was down 2.85 percent.

Company-wise stocks of Jindal Steel and Power, down 9.99 percent at Rs.189.70, Bhusan Steel, down 4.96 percent at Rs.107.30, Tata Steel, down 2.63 percent at Rs.473.30, Hindalco Inds, 0.48 percent at Rs.156.30, Monnet Ispat, down 8.16 percent at Rs.87.25 and Steel Authority of India, down 2.89 percent at Rs.68.95.

Stocks of power companies like Adani Power were down 2.10 percent at Rs.46.70; GVK Power and Infrastructure, down 6.60 percent at Rs.10.19; JP Power, down 5.86 percent at Rs.13.65; and Moser Baer, down 4.10 percent at Rs.7.48.

The Supreme Court Wednesday cancelled all the coal blocks allocated from 1993 to 2011, except four vested with the NTPC and other public sector undertakings.

As a consequence of this order, 214 coal blocks stand cancelled. Only four coal blocks were spared from cancellation. Out of four blocks one each belongs to NTPC and Steel Authority and two others which were allocated to Reliance Power's Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs).

Shares of state-run Coal India's scrip gained 5.20 percent at Rs.351.5. NTPC's scrip was higher by 0.91 percent at Rs.138.05 and Reliance Power up 5.34 percent at Rs.75.90.