Hindalco gains after PM's comments on coal blocks

Reuters Market Eye - Shares in Hindalco Industries Ltd gain as much as 4.3 percent after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office says he is satisfied with the outcome of the process of allocating coal blocks to certain companies, dealers say.

The comments were the first attributed to Singh since a case was filed this week against three companies in a scandal, dubbed "Coalgate." The scandal surfaced after an auditor's report last year questioning the government's practice of awarding coal mining concessions to companies without competitive bidding.

Hindalco said last week it was being investigated in a coal block allocation case and it followed every process required in the coal block allocation.

 

Hindalco shares were trading up 2.4 percent at 1234 pm.

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi)