Metal and power stocks are in focus ahead of the Supreme Court's decision on coal block allocations later today.
On September 8, the Government had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court over coal block allocations, leaving it to the apex court to decide if the 218 blocks deemed illegal by it should be cancelled or not.
It also gave SC details about 40 operational coal blocks and six ready to be functional blocks, which it had earlier asked the apex court to spare.
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court on August 25 declared that the entire allocation of coal blocks from 1993 till 2010 was illegal, arbitrary, non-transparent and without application of mind and guidelines.
Around 40 of the 105 blocks with private companies are producing coal and six are ready for production. These mines produce 53 million tonnes of coal, about 10 per cent of the total projected output from all blocks, and feed 26,000 Mw of power output and 12 million tonnes of steel production.
Meanwhile, in their submissions, industry bodies Independent Power Producers Association of India and Coal Producers’ Association said only those blocks in whose case criminality had been proven should be cancelled.
The Mahan Coal block allocated to Hindalco eight years ago to feed its aluminium plant in Madhya Pradesh.
With regards to Jindal Steel and Power it is the Utkal B1 block. JSPL needs access to coal from Utkal B1 mine for its steel and power project at Angul in Odisha.
In the metal pack, Bhushan Steel, Jindal Steel, Tata Steel, Sesa Sterlite, JSW Steel and Hindalco were down 0.2-5% each.
In the power segment, JP Power, Torrent Power, Adani Power, Reliance Power, Reliance Infra and GMR Infra were down 0.2-2% each.
