The Hindu Business Line : Steel stocks back in limelight

Steel stocks, especially that of Tata Steel, were again in the limelight after a news agency flashed that the Korean steel giant Posco has raised its product prices. Posco, producer of the cheapest steel in the world after Tata Steel, raised HR coil prices by 14 per cent and CR coil prices by 11 per cent. The hike comes after almost a year.

Earlier, some reports had indicated that Posco's profitability was under pressure due to rising input costs. Tata Steel was one of the biggest gainers in the steel sector on Monday, buoyed perhaps by speculation that its third quarter profit may equal to that of its entire first half.

Tata Steel shares rose by nearly five per cent to close at Rs 457.20. Total volume stood at 60.4 lakh on the BSE and more than a crore on the NSE. The Jindal Steel stock also rose by 5.8 per cent to Rs 612.70 and Essar Steel went up marginally to close at Rs 22.65.

Making up for Friday

STRONG buying was noticed in the stock of ONGC on Monday that, a dealer said, appeared to come from a group of proprietary traders.

He said the group was operating in the stock at certain levels after a technical snag in the NSE derivatives segment spoilt its punting plans on Friday.

ONGC closed 3.11 per cent higher on Monday at Rs 841.50. While about 10 lakh shares were traded on the BSE, a little over 23 lakh shares were traded on the NSE. This group of investors also appeared to have accumulated the shares of Essar Oil. The stock rose 6.5 per cent to close at Rs 26.80 on the NSE with the volume rising to 46.64 lakh shares.

FII selling

TWO large foreign institutional investors are reported to have turned sellers at select counters over the past few days. While new FIIs are said to be making an entry into Indian equities, these two funds are said to have sold from their portfolios.

FIIs have been net sellers of equities on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday last week. On Wednesday, they had been net buyers, but only of about Rs 20 crore, quite meagre going by their usual investment volumes.

Dinesh Narayanan

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