Tata Steel, JSW Steel, SAIL, Jindal Steel, NMDC shares gain as DGTR recommends safeguard duty
Steel stocks are in focus today after the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) recommended a provisional safeguard duty of 12 per cent on steel imports. The duty on flat steel products will be levied for 200 days, pending final investigation.
Shares of Tata Steel, SAIL, JSW Steel gained in early trade today.
Analysts of Kotak Institutional Equities emphasised that the domestic flat steel prices increased 5 per cent last month against the weakness in regional prices.
“The divergent move is led by the widely anticipated safeguard duty, which could come in at 12-15 per cent, against a demand of 25 per cent. Domestic prices are at a 7-8 per cent premium to import parity, leaving little room for further hikes in the former case,” Kotak analysts added.
Parthiv Jhonsa, Lead Analyst – Metals & Mining, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities, stressed, “This was the need for the hour, the industry players had been requesting the government for implementation of the safeguard duty since quite a few months now and were eagerly awaiting for the same since start of Feb 2025.”
“As the positive impact from the expected price hike and lower coking coal cost is not immediate, the earnings are expected to improve in next one to two quarters. Over medium term we expect the prices for flat steel to improve, which is expected to benefit flat steel manufacturers,” Jhonsa added.
Margins have bottomed in the third quarter of FY25 and the potential supply reforms in China pose upside risk, Kotak highlighted.
Global brokerage JP Morgan is positive anticipating favourable reactions amid China output cuts.
Kotak prefers non-integrated players Jindal Steel & Power and JSW Steel. It has assigned sell calls on SAIL, Tata Steel and NMDC.
Emkay Global believe that the current pricing environment remains subdued. Its favoured exposures are Tata Steel and JSW Steel.
Tata Steel stock rose 2.30 per cent on the NSE to ₹185.22 and JSW Steel were up 1.45 per cent to ₹1,032.85, trading among top gainers of Nifty 50 components.
SAIL shares led the gainers of Nifty metal index with a 3.52 per cent increase to ₹112.74 as at 10.02 am. NMDC shares inched up 0.54 per cent to ₹67.13
