Coal India stock nears 52-week high on growth in February output

Shares of Coal India approached their 52-week high today after a report said the firm's subsidiary Northern Coalfields was set to cross its output target of 119 million tonne for the current fiscal.

The stock rose 7.11 per cent to Rs 198 against the previous close of Rs 184.85 on BSE. The share touched a 52-week high of Rs 203.85 on October 6, 2021 and a 52 week-low of Rs 123.45 on May 19, 2021. The stock opened 2.79 per cent higher at Rs 190 today.

Coal India share is trading higher than 5 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages.

Northern Coalfields produced 5.67 lakh tonne of the dry fuel, the highest single-day count since its inception, and the total output in the 2021-22 financial year so far stood at 110.5 million tonne (mt), up by six per cent on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis.The stock has gained 28.91 per cent in the last four days.

The share has also seen positive sentiment after Coal India's February output rose 3.9 per cent to 64.3 million tonne compared to 61.9 million tonne in February 2021. For April 2021 to February 2022, coal production climbed 5.3 per cent to 542.4 million tonne compared to 515.1 million tonne in the corresponding period of previous year, the firm said on March 1.

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Here's what brokerages said about the prospects of the firm post February output figures.

Prabhudas Lilladher has maintained an accumulate rating on Coal India with a target price of Rs 192.  

"The firm displayed strong performance on sales volume over last six months. However, delay in price hike of FSA (85 per cent total volumes) remained a dampener. On balancing side, strong pick-up in E-auction realisations helped to negate absence of increase in FSA prices partially. Underpinned by improved operational performance and better outlook on both FSA (likely hike post state elections) and E-auction prices, we maintain accumulate rating with target price of Rs192 (earlier TP Rs172), EV/EBITDA of 2.7x FY23e," the brokerage said.

IIFL has given a buy call on Coal India with a target price of Rs 192. The current market price of Coal India is Rs 184.85. Time period given by analyst is Intra Day when Coal India Ltd. price can reach defined target.