Coal India bucks the trend

Shares of Coal India have gone up in a falling market on hopes of hefty dividend by the state-owned miner. Last week, the company’s shares rose two per cent even as the benchmark Sensex fell three per cent. Typically, the cash-rich company pays a hefty dividend in the March quarter to help the government, which holds 78.6 per cent stake, with its finances. Last March, it had paid a dividend of ~20 per share. In the previous two years, it had paid ~27.4 and ~20.7 per share.