Metal stocks were among top laggards on benchmarks Sensex and Nifty after nickel prices hit a 10-week low in London and were racing for their highest drop in nine months in Shanghai on Thursday. At the domestic front, Nifty Metal has underperformed other sectoral indices and exchanges with heavyweight stocks weighing down the performance.
At around 1.14 pm, the Nifty Metal index was trading at 4,012.90 down by 45.70 points or 1.13%. The index has touched an intraday high and low of 4,014.55 and 3,934.60 respectively.
The index was dragged by
Hindustan Copper the most as the stock plunges nearly 5% followed by SAIL, JSW Steel, MOIL and JSPL tumbling between 2-2.4%.
Stocks like
Tata Steel and Coal India dived by 1.6% and 1.5% respectively. Nearly 1% drop each was recorded in Hindalco and NALCO.
On the positive front, Welspun Corp took lead soaring by 4.4% followed by APL Apollo gaining 3.5% and Midhani surging 2%. Stocks like Hindustan Zinc, NMDC and Ratanamani advanced around 1% each.
The three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange slipped below $16,800 a tonne. The nickel has tumbled by at least 5% on Thursday to $16,555 a tonne the lowest since December 23 last year.
Meanwhile, the June nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slumped to 130,510 yuan a tonne which would be its largest intraday loss since May 2020. The performance comes after China-based Tsingshan signed a major deal to provide 100,000 tonnes of nickel matte to Huayou Cobalt and CNGR Advanced Material.
On the other hand, copper price maintains over $9,200 a tonne level at the London Metal exchange.