Nifty metal stocks in focus today: Domestic metal stocks, including Hindustan Copper, SAIL, Tata Steel, Jindal Stainless, Vedanta, and NMDC, came under significant selling pressure during Wednesday’s trading session, falling as much as 3.5% to the day’s low.
The decline followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to add another base metal—copper—to his latest round of tariffs, in addition to the previously announced 50% duties on steel and aluminium. The move also raised fears that he may further expand the tariff list to include other industry metals as well.
On Tuesday, Trump announced plans to impose a 50% tariff on copper imports in a bid to boost domestic production and reduce the country’s reliance on foreign supply. The U.S. currently imports nearly half of its copper, with Chile being the primary source.
“Today, we’re doing copper,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “I believe the tariff on copper, we’re going to make it 50%.” He did not say specifically when that tariff would take effect.
Hindustan Copper emerged as the top laggard among metal stocks today, falling 3.5% to hit the day’s low of ₹264 apiece, followed by SAIL, which dropped 2.35% to ₹131.82.
Other metal stocks, including Tata Steel, Jindal Stainless, Vedanta, NMDC, Hindalco Industries, Hindustan Zinc, and Jindal Steel & Power, also declined by over 1%.
Since February, when Trump first aired potential copper tariffs, global traders have shipped record volumes of metal into the US to get ahead of implementation. The tougher-than-expected 50% tariff — which could be in place within weeks — signals an imminent end to that trade.
Copper climbed as much as 17% on Comex on Tuesday, a record one-day spike to an all-time high, before falling more than 4% in early trading on Wednesday. On the LME, the metal slid as much as 2.4% at Wednesday’s open, before trading 0.7% lower at $9,722 a ton at 10:35 a.m. in Singapore.
(With inputs from agencies)
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