Coal India is currently the top loser on the BSE, down almost 7% at Rs.28 and this is after going down over 8% intra day to Rs.292.35, which is a little more than Rs.5 over the 52-week low of Rs.286.90.

The company on 5th March declared an interim dividend of Rs.27.40/share for FY16 on a face value of Rs.10 per share. Record date is tomorrow, 15th March.

And this is a typical behavior of stocks going ex-dividend. In order to recognise the fact that buyers of the share on or after that day will not qualify for the imminent dividend, the share price is adjusted downwards by an amount that reflects the size of the pending per share dividend payment. This is what why the share price has tumbled down and by Rs.21-26, almost equivalent to the dividend declared.

Record date is the cut-off date after which new buyers of the shares will not qualify for the pending dividend payments. In other words if you sell a share just before or buy a share just after the record date, you won't be entitled to the dividend.

On the other hand, there is unconfirmed news that Coal India will be buying back up to 5% of its equity in FY17, which alone will help Govt achieve 19% of its divestment target. Buy back price is rumoured to be around Rs.330-340/share.