Mumbai, January 6, 2026, 15:28 IST
- IEX shares rose as much as 13% after an APTEL hearing on CERC’s market-coupling framework
- IEX reported Oct-Dec power trading volumes rose 11.9% year on year to 34.08 billion units
- Derivatives open interest climbed 12%, signalling fresh bets ahead of regulatory clarity
Shares of Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) jumped as much as 13% on Tuesday after an electricity tribunal hearing on market-coupling rules that could reshape how power prices are set on exchanges. The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) questioned the process behind the rules, and IEX said the coupling order should be scrapped even without the securities regulator’s insider-trading findings, Moneycontrol reported, citing CNBC-TV18.
The case matters now because “market coupling” would pool buy and sell bids across exchanges to publish a single market-clearing price, narrowing the advantage of the dominant venue in attracting liquidity. For IEX, the shift goes to the heart of its business model: being the main platform where power prices are discovered.
IEX has asked the tribunal to set aside the regulator’s order and to pause implementation while the case is heard. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) approved the coupling framework in July 2025 and said the first phase would start with the day-ahead market from January 2026, with one operator aggregating orders to compute a uniform price and Grid India providing back-up and audit support; coupling in the real-time market would be considered later.
On Monday, IEX reported it traded 34.08 billion units of electricity in the October-December quarter, up 11.9% from a year earlier, excluding a separate transmission-rights segment. Day-ahead volumes slipped 2.8% to 16,250 million units, while the real-time market — where power is bought close to delivery — jumped 35.7% to 12,650 million units; average prices in both markets fell from a year earlier. The exchange said it traded 18.63 lakh renewable energy certificates in the quarter and logged 11.44 billion units in December, up 2.8% year on year.
Derivatives traders also added positions. Open interest — the number of outstanding futures and options contracts — rose 12.06% to 39,321 contracts on Jan. 6, Marketsmojo said, pointing to fresh bets even as the stock has spent months near its 52-week low.
Any change to price discovery hits IEX where it earns its money: transaction fees on every unit traded. The company holds about 84% of India’s power-exchange volumes and roughly 99% in the day-ahead and real-time segments, and CEO Satyanarayan Goel told investors it was “working to retain the present market share,” the Indian Express reported. The Indian Express
A bounce in the share price does not settle the longer fight. If coupling goes ahead on the regulator’s timeline, or if future rule changes squeeze trading fees, IEX’s unusually high margins would come under pressure even if overall electricity trading keeps rising.
Smaller exchanges, including Power Exchange India (PXIL) and Hindustan Power Exchange (HPX), would have more to gain from a single price and shared matching, which could make it easier for buyers and sellers to use multiple venues. For IEX, the near-term focus is whether the tribunal grants interim relief and how quickly CERC pushes the model into the day-ahead market.
