Coal India rallies nearly 3% as unions call off strike; top Sensex gainer

NEW DELHI: Coal India Ltd rallied as much as 2.7 percent in trade on Thursday, a day after Coal India unions called off their strike late after marathon talks with Coal, Power and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal.

Both ministers assured the trade unions that the government would protect the interests of the state owned behemoth and its employees.

At 09:50 a.m.; Coal India was trading 2.2 percent higher at Rs 383.15 and was also the top Sensex gainer. It hit a low of Rs 382 and a high of Rs 385 in trade today.

Goyal intervened after talks between the unions and bureaucrats failed. The Centre has agreed to look into the demands of the unions by setting up a panel that includes a senior coal ministry official and representatives from Coal India and the unions, ET reported.

The strike had pushed many power plants to the brink of shutdown. Coal supply had fallen to 40% of normal as workers stopped work on Tuesday for a five-day strike against a clause in the coal ordinance that allows private companies to mine coal and sell it in the open market, added the report.

The strike was the biggest protest by Coal India unions in nearly four decades and it directly attacked one of the biggest reform measures undertaken by the Modi government.

When the government approved the ordinance that allows private firms to mine coal and sell it in the open market, it also said CIL's interests would be protected. It also rejected calls to split the company, said the ET report.

Industry had expressed serious concern about the strike, which had caused losses of about Rs 300 crore. Coal India's subsidiaries Mahanadi Coalfields, Eastern Coalfields, Western Coalfields and Bharat Coking Coal, which constitute more than 70% of CIL's output on a normal day, supplied almost nothing on Tuesday.