Share markets in India recovered in the afternoon session to finish the trading day just above the dotted line amid mixed international markets. At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 85 points, while the NSE Nifty finished up by 18 points. The S&P BSE Mid Cap & the S&P BSE Small Cap finished up by 0.9% respectively. Gains were largely seen in consumer durables and pharma sector.

Asian markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.31%, while the Nikkei 225 & the Hang Seng fell 1.22% and 0.57% respectively. European markets are lower today with shares in Germany off the most. The DAX is down 0.33% while London’s FTSE 100 is off 0.05% and France’s CAC 40 is lower by 0.04%.

The rupee was trading at Rs 67.45 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 52.93 at the time of writing.

According to a leading financial daily, Coal India has reported provisional production of 55.99 million tones (MT) in January 2017, as against a target of 61.04 MT. The company’s total off-take for the month of January stood at 51.35 MT, as against a target of 55.73 MT.

The company also has produced 433.7 MT of coal in the April-January period of the ongoing fiscal against the target of 478.5 MT. The government is aiming at one billion tonne coal production by Coal India and another 500 million tonne by the private sector players by 2022.

Coal India’s coal production over the years.

Coal India is falling back on increasing allotments under the auction route as its sales and price realizations to Fuel Supply Agreement consumers is feeling the heat, owing to the low demand of the fossil fuel in the domestic market. While e-auction volumes for the company increased to touch 39.52 MT in the April-October period of the current financial year, the average price per tonne declined by 27%, at Rs 1,463 a tonne