The Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) share price is tracking lower in afternoon trade on Monday in the red.
At the time of writing, shares in the coal giant are down more than 1% at $8.62 apiece despite no market-sensitive news.
Meanwhile, the price of coal has slipped back to start the new week, after the black rock reached record highs of US$460 per tonne last week.
Both the Whitehaven share price and the coal price are plotted below for the past 12 months.
What's up with the Whitehaven share price?
Coal prices have a direct bearing on the ASX producers getting the essential commodity from mine to its end-use.
As the price of coal has been tremendously buoyant this year, so too has the ASX coal basket, in unison with the upside.
However, with the reversal of prices into this session, the same basket has clipped some losses today.
For, instance fellow coal players New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX: NHC) and Yancoal Ltd (ASX: YAL) are down less than 1% and 2.5% on the day respectively.
This comes after all three names have recently advanced to new 52-week highs in the recent days of trading.
Therefore, it stands to reason that the price of coal slipping back to range, plus a softening of continued strength in the sector are key points for consideration.
In addition to this, it's been noted that former Whitehaven chairman, John Conde, has sold down a position of 250,000 shares in the company, ahead of his retirement.
In filings posted to the ASX this morning, Whitehaven noted the sale and also that Conde still has a position of over 458,000 shares in the company.
In total, the sale is supposed to give the former hydrocarbons company chair over $2 million.
The Whitehaven share price currently trades on a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of approximately 4.5 times and has soared more than 230% this year to date.
