Calcutta: The Life Insurance Corporation has picked up an additional 2 per cent stake in government-owned Coal India through an open market purchase.

In a communication to the BSE, Coal India said the LIC has bought 12.47 crore shares of the company, increasing its holding to over 9 per cent from around 7 per cent.

The Coal India scrip was 0.23 per cent down over its previous close on the BSE on Wednesday. At the closing price of Rs 285.70 per share, a 2 per cent stake of the company amounts to Rs 3,500 crore.

The LIC has been an active investor in the public sector miner and its holdings have seen variation in the past few years.

The LIC's major investment in Coal India was in early 2015 when it had picked up a substantial stake in the offer for sale of the miner. Its shareholding increased from 2.59 per cent at the end of the December 2014 to 7.24 per cent in March 2015.

There had been subsequent sale and purchase of stake by the LIC in Coal India.

Production & quality

Addressing the 43rd foundation day of Coal India, Union coal minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday expressed hope that Coal India would be able to achieve its production target of 600mt this fiscal.

It has already produced 231.87 million tonnes in the first six months of 2017-18. Goyal, however, expressed concern over the low productivity in some of the mines.

Coal secretary Susheel Kumar said the ministry had fixed four priorities for the PSU miner - quality, safety, environmental management and clean coal technologies.

Coal India chairman Gopal Singh said the new coal-based thermal capacity was likely to put pressure on coal resources.