Coal India shares rose by almost 5 per cent today after the state-owned company scheduled a board meeting next week to consider payment of an interim dividend.
CIL's scrip gained 4.77 per cent to Rs 288.75 on the BSE after climbing as much as 5.87 per cent. The state-run miner's shares shot up 4.92 per cent to Rs 288.90 on the National Stock Exchange.
CIL was the top gainer among blue-chip shares on both the Sensex and Nifty indices.
"A meeting of the board of directors will be held on January 14...To consider payment of interim dividend, if any, for the year 2013-14," Coal India said in a filing to the BSE.
The Finance Ministry, seeking to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore for the current financial year, wants CIL to dole out a special dividend if the government's proposed stake sale does not take place.
The sale of a 5 per cent stake in CIL held by the government would fetch more than Rs 9,000 crore at the current market price.
"If CIL does not go for divestment, then they have to provide us a special dividend," Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram told PTI in an interview.
In 2012-13, CIL had paid a total dividend of Rs 8,842.91 crore to the government, the highest ever in the history of the company.
