IEX’s power market reign under threat

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Editor's note: Last Tuesday, the Indian Energy Exchange stock hit a 52-week low. This was a day after reports surfaced about the Dalmia Bharat Group planning to exit its entire stake in India’s leading power trading platform. Now, the Dalmias are among the oldest and largest investors in the exchange, holding a near 15% stake. Their plans to exit have more to do with divesting non-strategic investments and focusing on core businesses like cement, but their timing wasn’t exactly opportune. That’s because the IEX stock has been on a downward trajectory for a while; the shares have lost close to 40% of their value in the last one year. The reports on the group’s exit plans only served to hasten the slide in share prices. This stands in sharp contrast to the electrifying run two years ago, when the IEX stock, riding on the company’s near 90% share of the power exchange market, rose over 300% between October 2020 and October 2021. Clearly, there’s more that’s spooking IEX’s investors. Foreign and domestic institutional investors have pared their positions in the last two …