Mumbai: Metal stocks crashed after a sharp drop in global prices of iron ore, steel and copper futures as global growth outlook diminished on fresh Covid outbreak concerns in the US and China leading to expected cut in steel production in China.
The BSE Metal index fell 6.90 per cent compared to 0.54 per cent fall in the Sensex. Nifty Metal index also fell 6.43 per cent.
The top losers included on BSE included NMDC(-9.50 per cent), Vedanta(-8.87 per cent), Tata Steel(-8.27 per cent), Jindal Steel (-7.73 per cent), JSW Steel (-7.24 per cent), SAIL (-7.24 per cent), National Alumi-nium (-6.68 per cent), and Hindalco (-5.42 per cent).
Investors booked profit after big gains in the metal stocks after solid earnings performance in Q4 of FY21 and Q1 of FY22 had made them the best performing sector so far.
“This year metal index has been the outperformer with Nifty Metal index leading," said V.K. Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
