Few takers for metal stocks, investors better off betting on auto: Analysts

Analysts underweight despite metals index's better dividend yield, lower P/E versus Sensex

Despite being among the cheapest stocks on the bourses there are few takers for shares of metals and mining firms.  

The BSE Metal index, which tracks the market capitalisation of the top 10 stocks in the sector, is currently trading at a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 6.3 times (x) and a price-to-book value (P/B) ratio of 1.75x, a fraction of the benchmark BSE Sensex’s P/E multiple of 27.5x and P/B of 3.6x.

Additionally, the BSE Metal index’s dividend yield of 3.12 per cent is also more than thrice that of Sensex’s current yield of 0.96 per cent. In other words, an