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Informist, Friday, Mar. 30, 2026

 

MUMBAI – Shares of metal and mining companies are likely to be volatile in the near-term, though the sector is relatively insulated from the first-order impact of hostilities in West Asia. However, the overall market sentiment would affect price movements in this sector. Some fundamental analysts expect underlying commodity prices to provide cues to investors, alongside movements in the dollar index. They said the March quarter earnings will likely be hit due to higher input costs.

 

In the week ended Friday, the Nifty Metal index rose 1.1% to 11412.75 points. The sectoral index is among the top gainers this week, after Nifty Auto. The metal index also performed relatively better than the Nifty 50 in the last four weeks. The metal index has corrected nearly 9% from record highs, better than the benchmark index's over 12?ll.

 

While the Nifty 50 has closed lower for the fourth straight week, falling 9%, the metal index has snapped a two-week losing streak and ended higher. Lloyd Metals and Energy and Tata Steel topped the weekly charts, with 5-9% gains. Hindustan Zinc, National Aluminium Co., and Hindustan Industries were the hardest hit, ending the week with declines of 4-7%. 

 

"Ongoing profit-taking from its all-time highs took a halt around support at 11200 levels," Vipin Kumaar, assistant vice-president – technical and derivatives at Globe Capital Market, said. "Going ahead, we expect it to trade range-bound as long as it is holding above 11200 levels," the analyst said. A decline below 11200 points may prompt a near-term fall towards 10700 points for the index, he added. Meanwhile, 11900-12000 points will act as immediate resistance, he said.

 

Usually, metal companies perform best during the March quarter, due to relatively uninterrupted construction work spurring demand and better demand prospects from other sectors, such as automobile companies, an analyst at a medium-sized brokerage firm said. This quarter, while higher base metal prices will aid realisations, high input costs driven by rising freight costs and coking coal will likely weigh on metal companies' earnings, the analyst said.

 

Another risk is that, with expectations of a rise in inflation due to higher crude oil prices, there may be deferral of infrastructure products, the analyst said. This may also hit demand for metals in the near-term. He expects the volatility in the share price movements of metal companies to continue until there is an abatement of the West Asian military conflict. 

 

"While higher aluminium prices support near-term margins for producers such as Hindalco (Industries), persistently elevated prices could eventually weigh on demand," Emkay Global said in a strategy report earlier in the week. "Production of steel re-rollers has been impacted, as these have been excluded from the government's gas rationing priority list," it said.

 

TOP HEADLINES

 

* Godawari Power buys 199 mln shrs of arm Godawari New Energy for INR 1.99 bln
* Vedanta board to consider third interim dividend for FY26 on Mon
* Tata Steel Board OKs up to INR-184.88-bln investment in arm T Steel Holdings
* Kirloskar Ferrous says mfg ops at its Solapur unit disrupted by LPG shortage
* Gulf aluminium output to dip more by 2 wks if disruptions last: ING Economics
* NCLT approves Adani Enterprises' resolution plan for Jaiprakash Associates
* NCLT approves Adani Ent's resolution plan for Jaiprakash Associates
* IPO Alert: Madhur Iron & Steel withdraws draft papers for fresh issue
* Lloyds Metals commences copper cathode production in Congo
* Hindalco says it has not halted operations in aluminium extrusion business
* Bloomberg: Hindalco to suspend sales of aluminium pdts on West Asia war woes
* Godawari Power approves to undertake logistics business
* JSW Steel announces Minas de Revubo coking coal mine project in Mozambique
* IPO Alert: Rajputana Stainless to now list Thu after SEBI action against co
* Lloyds Metals to allot shares to non-promoters, buy stake in mining firm
* Jindal Stainless says ops across plants adversely hit by fuel constraints

 

The following are the resistance and support levels for key metal stocks for next week, as per calculations based on their prices on the National Stock Exchange:

 

Company	Price	Week-on-week  change in %	Resistance	Support
HINDALCO INDUSTRIES LTD	874.25	(-)3.90	921.40	846.40
HINDUSTAN COPPER LTD	489.45	(-)1.40	505.80	463.80
HINDUSTAN ZINC LTD	514.75	(-)6.70	533.10	501.50
JINDAL STEEL LTD	1186.50	3.80	1227.40	1123.60
JSW STEEL LTD	1169.60	4.50	1213.20	1116.20
JINDAL STAINLESS LTD	721.95	2.10	758.80	694.30
NATIONAL ALUMINIUM COMPANY LTD	368.50	(-)4.90	392.70	348.50
NMDC LTD	79.78	1.50	83.00	76.40
STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LTD	155.52	3.80	161.20	150.30
TATA STEEL LTD	196.77	7.20	202.60	190.40
VEDANTA LTD	672.20	(-)2.50	698.70	651.20
	Levels
NIFTY METAL	11412.75	1.10	11721.00	11137.30
NIFTY 50	23114.50	(-)0.20	23453.30	22898.20
BSE SENSEX	74532.96	(-)0.00	75636.10	73833.40

 

End

 

Reported by Gopika Balasubramanium

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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