Vedanta hits a new low

The cup of woe seems to be brimming for Vedanta. After the closure of its copper unit in Tamil Nadu,the company announced on Friday that its parent company has halted operations at its Zambian mine.

Even in this mine at Chingola, the company has been facing a lot of opposition from the locals. 1826 villagers have filed civil cases against Vedanta and KCM in the English courts, claiming that they were negligent and violated Zambian environmental laws. Waste from the mine is alleged to have polluted the local waterway and caused personal injury and damage to property.

There is no confirmation of this by the company yet.

This news comes on a day when the stock was included in the Sensex, effective today, replacing Dr.Reddy’s.

And on Friday, the company announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Vedanta Star had been allotted 176,55,06,078 fully paid up equity shares of Rs 10 each in Electrosteel Steels as per the approved Resolution Plan. Pursuant the aforementioned allotment, the company now holds 90 per cent of the paid up share capital of ESL through VSL.

The stock price today slipped down over 4% to Rs.228.80, a new 52-week low.