Extending their decline into the second day, shares of Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), a trading platform for the physical delivery of electricity, renewables, and certificates, touched a fresh 52-week low of Rs 116.05 per share in Friday's session, after tumbling around another 15 per cent on the BSE on Friday’s session. The stock finally ended at Rs 122.60 on the BSE, down 10.18 per cent.

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The stock has extended its decline from Thursday’s session after reports said that the Power Ministry has asked the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to introduce the ‘market coupling’ mechanism for spot power trading.

The market coupling mechanism will bring uniformity in power pricing, which, according to Zee Business Research, may impact IEX negatively in terms of dominance and price difference. This move will allow more exchanges to enter the market, which will increase competition for IEX, Zee Business Research pointed out.

The stock ended with a loss of around 8.5 per cent to Rs 136.50 per share in the final hours of the trading session on Thursday.

What is market coupling?

Market coupling is the process where buy and sell bids from all power exchanges in the country are aggregated and matched to discover a uniform market clearing price (MCP). In the long term, the measure is likely to help keep power tariffs affordable in the country, apart from ensuring quick access. Market coupling is positive for consumers.

ALSO READ | All about market coupling and what should one do with IEX stock?

Brokerages' views

Nuvama Institutional Equities, in its Q4 review report released recently, said the near-term headwinds for the company are potential market coupling and a widening power deficit-driven shift in volumes from spot to longer-duration instruments. It maintained a ‘reduce’ with a target of Rs 127 per share.

Amid market coupling news, most domestic brokerages have downgraded the IEX stock. For instance, Antique Stock Broking double-downgraded IEX shares to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’ with a revised target price of Rs 105 per share against Rs 138 apiece earlier.

Axis Securities has also downgraded IEX shares to ‘sell’ from ‘buy’ rating with a revised target of Rs 111 per share from Rs 180 per share earlier.

IEX share price NSE: Past performance

IEX's share price declined over 33 per cent in the last year as compared to a nearly 14 per cent rise in the Nifty50 index. So far in 2023, the stock is down around 14 per cent against a 2.5 per cent rise in the benchmark index.

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