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Informist, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: Metal stocks fall as investors book profits after recent rally

 

MUMBAI--1000 IST--Shares of most metal companies were down in the opening minutes of trade Thursday. All constituents of the Nifty Metal index were in the red and the sectoral index was the worst hit among peers in early trade, down almost 2% at 0954 IST. Stocks in this sector were seeing profit-booking after a recent rally, Anshul Jain, technical analyst at Laxmi Shri Securities, said. 

 

Companies engaged in precious metals production were among the worst hit, with shares of Hindustan Zinc, Hindustan Copper, and Vedanta declining 3–5%. The March futures contract of silver on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India was down almost 1% at INR 248,178 per kilogram, and the January contract of copper was slightly lower at INR 1,301 per kilogram. Shares of National Aluminium Co. were down 4%. 

 

Prior to the decline in the current session and on Wednesday, the Nifty Metal index had risen for six consecutive days, during which it gained almost 5%. The index ended flat on Wednesday. It has surged over 11% in the last 30 days, but has seen a muted performance in seven prior trading sessions.

 

Shares of Tata Steel were 1% lower. The company Wednesday said its India operations manufactured a record high quantity of crude steel in the December quarter, at 6.34 million tonnes, up over 11% from 5.69 million tonnes produced in the year-ago quarter. The production growth was attributed to higher output at Tata Steel's Jamshedpur and Kalinganagar factories. HSBC said European steel companies have rallied sharply over the past six months, gaining between 29% and 63%, as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism comes into effect, CNBC TV-18 reported, citing the brokerage. HSBC expects European steel prices to rise further and sees upside risks to estimates for Tata Steel Netherlands. It said Tata Steel's underperformance was surprising, given its sizeable European footprint of around 7 million tonnes.  (Eshitva Prakash)

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Equity Alert: Benchmark indices open lower as metal, IT cos fall; RIL dn 1%

 

MUMBAI--0952 IST--Domestic benchmark indices opened lower Thursday as the fall in information technology and metal companies stocks weighed. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was down around 1% and Hindalco Industries, down nearly 2%, dragged the Nifty 50 lower.    

 

At 0942 IST, the Nifty 50 was at 26093.80 points, down 46.95 points or 0.2%, and the BSE Sensex was at 84826.04, down 135.10 points or 0.2%. 

 

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Eternal were the top gainers in the Nifty 50, up over 1?ch. Most of the information technology companies were down. Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra were down 1-2%. 

 

Most of the metal companies opened in the red, with Hindustan Zinc, National Aluminium Co., Vedanta, and Hindustan Copper down 3-5%. Hindalco Industries was the worst hit in the Nifty 50, down over 2%. Hindustan Zinc was the worst hit in both the Nifty 200 and Nifty 500 indices.

 

Tata Steel opened higher but later fell. The company reported that its India operations crude steel manufacturing hit a record high at 6.34 million tonnes for the December quarter. This was over 11% higher from 5.69 million tonnes produced in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The stock is now down 1%.

In the sectoral indices, barring Nifty Realty, all others were in the red. Nifty Metal was the worst hit, down over 2%. Bajaj Holdings & Investment was the top gainer in the Nifty 200 index, up nearly 4%, and Trident was the top gainer in the Nifty 500, up 7%. Shares of Gland Pharma were up over 1%. The stock rose after the company received the US Food and Drug Administration's approval for its abbreviated new drug application for olopatadine hydrochloride ophthalmic solution USP. 

 

A bounce-back is expceted at 25950 level and the immediate resistence is pegged at 26200 points, said Anshul Jain, head of research at at Lakshmishree Investment and Securities. The metal stocks are down as investors book profits, he said.  (Adhithya Aji)

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Equity Alert: Indices seen flat at open after recent profit booking

 

MUMBAI--0830 IST--Benchmark equity indices are likely to be rangebound Thursday after closing lower for the previous three sessions. Investors booked profits since Monday after the Nifty 50 touched fresh record high, analysts said. GIFT Nifty contracts suggest the Nifty 50 index will be flat at open Thursday as it is just 40 points higher than the previous close.

 

At 0827 IST, the GIFT Nifty's January contract was at 26168.50 points, higher than the Nifty 50's close of 26140.75 points on Wednesday. The Nifty 50 is seen facing resistance at 26270 points and finding support at 26000 points, Vipin Kumaar, derivatives and technical analyst at Globe Capital Market, said. "Intraday trend is more or less sideways (till) the Nifty (50) is trading below 26200 spot levels," he said. 

 

Wednesday, the Nifty 50 closed lower for the third session, down 37.95 points or 0.1%. The BSE Sensex closed at 84961.14 points, down 102.20 points or 0.1%. "The gradual downward correction is expected to end soon and the Nifty is likely to bounce back from near the crucial support of around 26100–26000 levels in the short term," Nagaraj Shetti, senior technical research analyst at HDFC Securities, said in a note. 

 

US indices, except the Nasdaq Composite index, closed lower Wednesday. The S&P 500 was dragged down by declines in JP Morgan, Blackstone, and other financial services stocks, Reuters reported. Nvidia and Alphabet lifted the Nasdaq Composite as investors shifted towards artificial intelligence-related stocks, according to the report. Asian indices were mixed in early trade Thursday, with South Korea's KOSPI leading the pack of gainers. KOSPI was higher for the fifth straight session.  (Arundathi A R)

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Equity Alert: Asian indices mixed Thu amid global geopolitical tensions

 

MUMBAI--0759 IST--Asian equity markets were mixed in early trade Thursday, tracking overnight movement in US indices amid geopolitical instability across the globe. While Hong Kong's Hang Seng was the worst hit index in Asia, South Korea's Kospi led the gains after opening slightly lower. 

 

Rising tensions between China and Japan affected the market sentiment in these countries, as China's CSI 300 and Japan's Nikkei 225 and Topix were 0.1-0.7% lower in initial trade. China escalated trade tensions with Japan by investigating semiconductor chemicals a day after banning dual-use military goods exports to Japan, citing price drops amid tensions over Taiwan, according to media reports. Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's comments about military intervention in Taiwan, along with a lawmaker's visit there, led to Beijing's retaliatory trade measures against Tokyo, the report said.

 

Investors should be more selective when choosing Chinese technology stocks this year, Dow Jones Newswires cited Barclays analysts as saying in a research note. "Government policies to drive economic recovery were a tailwind for Chinese tech stocks in 2025 and drove broader gains," the report cited analysts. 

 

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was slightly higher after a choppy open. Shares of BlueScope Steel fell 2%, after the company rejected a $9-billion takeover bid from Australian conglomerate SGH and US-based Steel Dynamics, according to CNBC.

 

Following are the levels of key Asian indices at 0757 IST:

 

INDEX	LEVEL	CHANGE IN %
CSI 300 Index	4758.4337	(-)0.38
Hang Seng Index	26105.91	(-)1.33
KOSPI	4607.28	1.24
Nikkei 225 Day	51753.59	(-)0.40
TOPIX FIRST SECTION	3508.61	(-)0.08
FTSE Singapore Straits Times	4754.66	0.15
S&P/ASX 200 Index	8732.50	0.42

 

(Simran Rede)

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Equity Alert: US indices end mixed Wed; S&P 500 dn as bk, energy stocks fall

 

MUMBAI--0748 IST--US indices ended mixed on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average pulling back from record levels. Banking and energy sector stocks led to the fall in indices, while technology stocks lifted the Nasdaq Composite, which ended 0.2% higher. 

 

Financial sector stocks such as JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo fell. JP Morgan was down 2.3?ter Wolfe Research downgraded the stock to "peer perform" from "outperform," Reuters reported. Blackstone and Apollo Global Management fell more than 5%, which led to a 1.4?cline in the S&P financials index. In the energy sector, Exxon Mobil fell 2%, Chevron was down over 1%, and ConocoPhillips down over 3%.

 

Shares of oil refiners, Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum rose 3% and 1%, respectively on positive sentiment that oil sales from Venezuela will continue and sanctions would be reduced, CNBC reported, citing sources.

 

Tech giants Nvidia and Microsoft rose about 1?ch and Google's parent company Alphabet rose more than 2%. The stocks were up as investors shifted back to artificial intelligence-related stocks following recent worries about overvaluation, Reuters reported.   

 

Following are the closing levels of US indices Wednesday:  

 

Index	Level	Change in %
S&P 500	6920.93	(-)0.34
NASDAQ Composite	23584.27	0.16
Dow Jones Industrial Average	48996.08	0.94

     

(Adhithya Aji)

 

US$1 = INR 89.82

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

All prices from National Stock Exchange, unless otherwise specified.

All percentage changes for share prices are rounded off to the nearest whole number; percentage changes for index values are rounded off to one decimal place.

All times are Indian Standard Time.

 

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