Metal and mining companies, such as Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Hindalco, and Coal India, have been among the top-performing sectors on the bourses in recent months. The S&P BSE Metal Index is up 13 per cent in the past three months, rallying 29 per cent in the past year, outperforming the broader market. For comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex has only seen a 1.7 per cent increase in the past three months, with a 15 per cent gain since the end of September last year.
Hindalco's first quarter (Q1FY23) results indicate healthy domestic volumes for aluminium and copper, and lower cost of production. Subsidiary Novelis saw weak volume trends but it managed to push operating profit margins on a better mix and pricing hikes. The weak global outlook on aluminium is a cause for ongoing concern.
There 'appears to be a conscious policy to create unfair preferences for Chinese industries by making raw materials cheaper for China's companies to get, and goods more economical for them to produce, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said on Tuesday. The European Union has filed a similar complaint with the WTO.
The EV industry is at an inflection point and batteries will play a critical role ahead -- batteries and related components typically constitute 35-45 per cent of an EV's costs.
This is a high-stakes strategic conflict between a power which wants to preserve the status quo in its favour and one which wants to usurp that throne. The rest is all theatre, says Harsh V Pant.
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'Mining jobs get created in the most backward districts of India's poorest states,' says Anil Agarwal.
In a few years there may be 100 Japanese companies in Gujarat, while Chinese firms may commit investments of over Rs 6,000 crore.
What has hit sentiment further is a draft proposal by the government to increase vehicle insurance premiums for financial year 2022-23 (FY23). Third-party motor insurance premiums have not been increased over the last two years and if this is approved, insurance costs for specific segments could rise by a fifth. The worst impacted is the 350cc and above two-wheeler segment, where premiums are up 21 per cent. Royal Enfield (Eicher Motor) is the market leader in the segment. The premiums in the 150-350cc two-wheeler category are also being inc
The uptick in prices ranging from steel to wheat could benefit lots of commodity-based companies -- from State-owned SAIL to the agro exporters.
The Netherlands has emerged as India's fifth-largest export destination in 2021-22 (FY22), jumping from its 10th position a year ago. Exports to the fifth-largest economy in the European Union (EU) bolted 94 per cent to $12.5 billion in the financial year ended March 31. In FY22, the Netherlands surpassed Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK, Germany, and Nepal to become India's largest export destination in the EU. Germany, which was earlier India's top European export destination (eighth position), has now dropped two ranks to 10th place.
'Periods of high volatility are usually bad for mid-caps and this is something that has to be kept in mind.' 'Focus on quality is of paramount importance.'
Despite superior margins, JLR hasn't had a smooth ride in China.
From smart cities to gold, the fallout of the Chinese meltdown will have far-reaching consequences
The Chinese economy is not collapsing, it is shifting to different growth drivers which the old metrics used to judge China do not pick up.
Companies are drawn to the parks by the infrastructure and ready-to-occupy land.
This State-corporate 'cooperation' didn't begin with the arrival of the Modi government.
Many of the big licences, contracts, and even environmental clearances for the Adani group had come in the UPA's time, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Markets will be closed on Thursday and Friday on account of Holi and Good Friday, respectively.
Sensex seems to be under pressure on weak cues.
Modelled loosely around the National Highway System of the US, he in 2001 launched the Golden Quadrilateral and the North-South & East-West Corridor projects to build 4/6 lane highways between four top metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata as well as from Srinagar to Kanyakumari and Porbandar to Silchar.
India imported $62 billion of Chinese goods last year.
The Russian-Ukraine war can hit the global supply chains that are already constrained due to the pandemic and the worst impact will be on ongoing chip shortage because the warring nations brutally control supplies of key raw materials that go into making semiconductors, warns a report. Since Russia controls as much as 44 per cent of global palladium suppplies, Ukraine produces a significant 70 per cent of the global supply of neon -- the two key raw materials that go into making chips. The markets can expect the global chip shortage, that began with the pandemic, to worsen if the military conflict lingers on, says a Moody's Analytics report on Friday.
Prices of all metals - from steel to copper, aluminium, zinc and lead - have shot up by about 5-11 per cent in the past month. Commodity inflation is raising its head, forcing companies to consider price hikes.
The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have performed better than the front-liners
'The growth drivers are mostly invisible, but the growth is undeniable at least for now,' notes Debashis Basu.
The issues around trade gaps, especially around steel and aluminium tariffs imposed by the US, will be addressed separately.
Ideas don't have border controls and visas.
Besides the manufacturing industry, voices in favouring the need for protectionism have also been heard from local start-ups, which at times find it tough to compete with global players that entered India with deep pockets.
The latest additions will bring the total number of UK manufacturing jobs announced by JLR over the last three years to almost 11,000.
The US president alleged that China had been indulging in tremendous intellectual property theft worth hundreds of billions of dollars on a yearly basis.
Nearly a decade ago, the first fully electric vehicle (EV) caught fire on the road in the US. It was a model from Tesla, the world's most admired EV maker. A metal fragment punctured the underbelly of the vehicle, penetrating its battery pack, leading to a fire. Indian lawmakers and automakers have had nine years to study the incident (in fact, three Tesla Model Ss caught fire in two months in 2013) but seem to have learnt little.
'China has reclaimed, after two years, its mantle as the world's fastest-growing large economy.' 'This, when its working age population is shrinking, while ours is growing.' 'And talking of jobs, China expects to create 11 million urban jobs this year; for India, don't ask,' says T N Ninan.
Then chief minister Jyoti Basu once told an industrialist that capitalists were class enemies and he should expect no sympathy.
'Rising Covid cases and localised lockdowns are being closely monitored.'
Brokers said a flurry of buying by investors in blue-chips mainly influenced the sentiment.
All this is happening at a time when aluminium prices in the world market are firming up.
Contributors to Team Indus project will have names etched on an object going to space.
Benchmark share indices ended flat amid lack of investor participation even as gains in IT majors ahead of their second quarter earnings helped capped downside.
On an average most commodities are up between 20-30 per cent compared to a year ago levels.
Steel, cement, aluminum, fertilisers, tractors, two-wheelers, beverages and carbonated drinks, tyres and FMCG could see demand back to near normal levels by the third or the fourth quarter of the financial year, or even earlier.
This is the time when the US would need the conceptual strategic thinking of a Henry Kissinger, able to ally diplomatic skills with a well-conceived worldview of what the emergence of a new balance of forces will mean for a US whose ability to shape global events has definitely declined but still exists, says Claude Smadja.
