Coal India shares tank 6%, emerge as worst Nifty 50 performer. What's behind the fall?

Coal India share price slumped 6% on Friday, April 10 making it the worst performer on the Nifty 50 index after the company announced a cut in coal reserve prices under its single-window, mode-agnostic e-auction segment.

The decision reflects the company’s strategy to absorb rising input costs rather than pass them on to customers, aiming to keep coal prices affordable and ease cost pressures for end-users.

This comes despite a sharp surge in key input costs. Prices of ammonium nitrate—a critical raw material for explosives—have risen 44% from ₹50,500 per tonne pre-war to ₹72,750 per tonne as of April 1, 2026. Explosives costs have also increased 26%, while industrial diesel prices have jumped 54% to ₹142 per litre.

The move to shield consumers from inflationary pressures appears to have weighed on investor sentiment, leading to the sharp decline in the stock.

Before the West Asian crisis, the prices of ammonium nitrate (AN) for Coal India Ltd were relatively stable from August 2025 until January 2026, but they soared to ₹50,500 per metric tonne on March 1, 2026, and continued to rise sharply afterward.

This increase in AN prices had a significant impact on the costs of explosives, given that the company heavily depends on explosives for its blasting operations to remove overburden and access coal seams. As a result, the average price of explosives increased by approximately 26%, escalating from ₹39,588 per metric tonne in February 2026 to ₹49,783 per metric tonne by the end of March. Annually, Coal India’s subsidiaries utilize nearly 9 lakh metric tonnes of explosives.

Sudeep Shah, Head of Technical and Derivatives Research at SBI Securities, said that Coal India witnessed a sharp decline, primarily driven by rising input costs. In an effort to keep energy prices affordable and support the domestic power sector, the company has absorbed these elevated costs instead of passing them on to end consumers, thereby impacting near-term profitability.

Coal India share price today

Coal India share price today opened at ₹454.50 apiece on the BSE, the stock touched an intraday high of ₹459.70 per share and an intraday low of ₹427.30 apiece.

According to Ruchit Jain, Head - Equity Technical Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the stock has witnessed profit booking in today's session and has breached its 50 DEMA support. Traders can look to book profits as the prices could retrace towards its 200 DEMA support of Rs. 410-400 in the near term.

Sudeep Shah, Head of Technical and Derivatives Research at SBI Securities, said that Coal India witnessed a sharp decline, primarily driven by rising input costs. In an effort to keep energy prices affordable and support the domestic power sector, the company has absorbed these elevated costs instead of passing them on to end consumers, thereby impacting near-term profitability.

From a technical standpoint, Sudeep Shah of SBI Securities believes that despite the sharp correction observed on Friday, the stock continues to maintain a higher high–higher low structure on the daily timeframe, indicating that the broader trend remains intact.

“The 200-day EMA, currently placed at ₹413, emerges as a crucial support level to monitor. On the upside, the stock is likely to face resistance near the ₹466 zone. In the near term, the price action is expected to remain range-bound, with a phase of sideways consolidation likely within the defined support and resistance levels,” said Shah.

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