Stock market crash: NALCO, Hindustan Zinc to Tata Steel — why are metal stocks nosediving today?

Stock market crash: Following the weak global cues on the US-Iran war, the Indian stock market crashed for the third straight session on Friday. At the sectoral level, broad-based selling pressure is evident across most segments in early trade, with the FMCG sector the only notable pocket of resilience. Even metal stocks witnessed sharp selling despite a dip in international metal prices.

Among metal majors, Hindustan Zinc share price is down by over 4%, Tata Steel share price is also down by around 4%, NALCO share price is down by around 6%, Hindalco Industries shares are down by nearly 5%, while SAIL share price mosedived over 4% in the early morning session on Friday.

What is dragging metal stocks?

On why metal stocks are nosediving despite the dip in metal prices in the international market, Anuj Gupta, a SEBI-registered market expert, said, “It's true that metal prices have fallen in the international market, but it is also true that industrial demand for metals has gone down due to the buzz gas supply shortage.”

Explaining the impact of the US-Iran war on the metal companies, Avinash Gorakshkar, a SEBI-registered fundamental equity analyst, said, “Amid no signs of de-escalation in the US-Iran war, the market is expecting a shortage of gas supply, an important ingredient for metal processing. So, companies have lowered their demand, and they are not buying fresh raw materials until a clear picture of the US-Iran ceasefire emerges.”

Gorakshkar said that low industrial demand for metals is expected to reflect in the company's balance sheet, and the market is estimating weak Q4 earnings for metal processing companies. That's why the Indian stock market is trying to discount these triggers.

Metal price today

According to Reuters, Aluminium eased on Friday as rising oil prices remained a focus, continuing to fuel inflation concerns, although the metal was headed for weekly gains amid supply risks linked to the ongoing Middle East war.

The most-active aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was down 0.26% at 25,250 yuan ($3,667.13) a metric ton as of 0250 GMT, but was on course for a near 3% weekly gain.

On SHFE, copper dropped 0.31%, zinc shed 0.41%, lead declined 0.45%, tin lost 1.29%, and nickel added 0.11%.

Among other LME metals, copper eased 0.53%, lead dropped 0.34%, nickel lost 0.88%, tin declined 0.58%, and zinc was little changed.

Stock market crash

The Indian stock market continued to reel under intense selling pressure for the third consecutive session on Friday, March 13, with the benchmarks Sensex and the Nifty 50 falling by 1% each.

The Sensex opened at 75,444 against its previous close of 76,034 and dropped over 900 points, or more than 1%, to the intraday low of 75,121.

The Nifty 50 opened at 23,462 against its previous close of 23,639 and fell over 300 points, or more than 1%, to an intraday low of 23,326.

Both indices are set to extend losses for the third consecutive week. This week, the Sensex has shed about 3,800 points, or nearly 5%, while the Nifty 50 has lost more than 1,100 points, or nearly 5%.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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