Growth levers intact for steel players as rupee, firm demand support prices

Tata Steel, JSW Steel, SAIL and Jindal Steel to benefit from improving prices helped by better demand and rupee depreciation

The rupee’s depreciation against the dollar and strong domestic demand continue to support steel prices, buoying stock prices for entities in the sector, unlike the volatility seen in most other commodity stocks.

Tata Steel and JSW Steel, the two most favoured ones among analysts, have significantly outperformed the broader indices over the past three months. The trend is likely to sustain, say the analysts, who believe Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) will also gain.

Flat steel products, used for making automobiles, white goods and the like, saw prices hiked last month by ~500-1,000 a tonne. Analysts