Indian Energy Exchange: Why IEX shares tumbled 26% ahead of Q1 results today

Shares of Indian Energy Exchange Ltd (IEX) on Thursday extend its intraday fall to 26 per cent,  after hitting 20 per cent lower circuit limit earlier, following the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) decision to approve a phased rollout of market coupling across India’s power exchanges. 

Market coupling is an economic model used in energy markets to create a single, uniform price for electricity across different trading platforms or exchanges. This is seen impacting IEX's market share.

The IEX stock was trading 25.98 per cent lower at Rs 139.05 on BSE. The company is scheduled to report its the unaudited financial results for the June quarter today.

CERC has approved the rollout of market coupling norms for the Day-Ahead Market (DAM), in line with the Power Market Regulations of 2021. In the first phase, the Day-Ahead Market is set to be coupled by January 2026. As per reports, multiple power exchanges will function as Market Coupling Operators (MCOs) in a round-robin manner.

In an earnings call in April, Chairman and MD Satyanarayan Goel said he expected customer loyalty towards IEX. "It is because of the kind of services which we provide and the robust technology platform which we have, on which there has been no problem in the last 17 years and the financial reconciliation settlement, everything we do on time. And in addition to that, we also provide a lot of data analytics to them."

 "So I think because of all that only the customers are staying with us. Even today also, the customers are staying because of that only. And in future also, I'm sure we will
be able to retain a large part of the customer base," he said.

InCred Equities in a recent note said IEX volume growth was sluggish in June due to demand  decline, with volume up by only 6.5 per cent YoY and 15 per cent YoY in 1QFY26, driven by RTM and green market volume, up 41 per cent and 51 per cent YoY, respectively. 

"The price dip, driven by  surplus renewable supply, highlights the need for enhanced storage and grid infrastructure  to manage supply-demand mismatches, particularly during evening peak hours," it said earlier this month.