The Indian share markets finished the on a dull note, taking a cue from Asian peers. At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex closed lower by 11 points, whereas the NSE Nifty finished lower by 2 points. The S&P BSE Midcap ended down by 0.1% while the S&P BSE Small Cap finished up by 0.4%. Sectoral indices ended the day on a mixed note. Realty and consumer durables stocks witnessed the maximum buying interest while banking and oil & gas stocks led the losses.
Asian markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Nikkei 225 gained 2.51% and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.73%. The Hang Seng lost 0.07%. European markets are lower today with shares in Germany off the most. The DAX is down 0.18% while London’s FTSE 100 is off 0.02% and France’s CAC 40 is lower by 0.01%.
The rupee was trading at Rs 68.18 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 52.62 at the time of writing.
According to an article in The Economic Times, Coal India announced that in this month, it will be starting the second phase of auction of coal linkages for the non-regulated sector and is likely to put on offer 14.5 million tonnes (MT) of fuel.
In this regard, Tranche II of auction of coal linkages for sponge iron sub-sector under non-regulated sector will start from January 17 onwards. Further, in the non-regulated sector, the auction of coal linkages will be for sponge iron, cement, steel and others.
One must note that, the company will put on offer of around 5 MT of coal for the sponge iron sector. In the first round, the company had auctioned around 22 MT of fuel linkages for the non-regulated sector. Also, last year, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved allocation of coal linkages for non-regulated sector only through auction route.
2015 had been an absolutely terrible year for metals and mining companies. Almost all of them saw their stock prices plunge and how. 2016, had seen a reversal of sorts though. Barring SAIL and Coal India, all the metals and mining companies have outperformed the Sensex by a wide margin. In one of our premium editions of The 5 Minute WrapUp, we have cited the reasons Coal India’s underperformance (Subscription Required). Going forward, whether the worst gets over and prices start to rise again will be the key things to watch out for.
