Metal shares gain; Vedanta up 5%

Shares of metal companies were in focus with the Nifty Metal index gaining more than 2% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) as higher base metals prices in global commodities markets.

Vedanta, JSW Steel, MOIL, Hindalco Industries, Coal India, Jindal Steel & Power and Hindustan Zinc were up in the range of 2% to 5% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

At 02:35 PM; Nifty Metal index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, was up 2.6% at 3,663 compared to 0.88% rise in Nifty 50 index.

LMEX, a gauge of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 1.2% at 3,186 on Thursday.

Vedanta was trading 5% higher at Rs 299 after the company announced that its board proposed to meet on Tuesday, December 19, to consider offering of rated, secured, redeemable, non-cumulative, non-convertible debentures aggregating up to Rs 500 crore.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday has lifted the annual iron ore mining ceiling from 30 million to 35 million tonnes for the A and B categories that it had placed on the total production in the state of Karnataka.

The major beneficiary would be JSW Steel, which has been spending heavily to bring ore from the eastern states, the Business Standard report suggested. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT