Metal stocks such as Sesa Sterlite, JSPL slip ahead of SC ruling on coal blocks

NEW DELHI: Metal stocks came under bit of selling pressure in trade on Wednesday ahead of the Supreme Court's decision on coal block allocations later today.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday will rule on the fate of coal blocks at 2 p.m. that had been declared illegal earlier on August 25. The top court had declared some 200-odd coal blocks as illegal but had not cancelled them.

Ahead of the verdict, metal stocks such as JSPL, Sesa Sterlite, NMDC, Jindal Steel, JSW Steel, Bhushan Steel slipped are down between 0.3-5% on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

At 09:50 a.m.; BSE Metal index was trading 0.13 per cent lower as compared to 0.12 per cent gain seen in the BSE Sensex.

JSPL was trading 1.2 per cent lower at Rs 208, Sesa Sterlite was down 0.7 per cent to Rs 278.80 and NMDC was trading 0.32 per cent lower at Rs 168.80.

JSW Steel was down 0.4 per cent and Bhushan Steel was trading 4.9 per cent lower at Rs 107.30.

The government has since urged the court not to cancel those 38 which are already in production and another six which were on the verge of production, ET reported.

The rest could be cancelled and re-auctioned, the government has said. Industry bodies are citing massive investments in end use projects to oppose this, saying instead these should be regularised after penalties, but the court is unlikely to do this. Instead it may go with the government advice, added the report.