Market Movers: China rains on steel stocks’ parade as fertilizer stocks jump in glee

MUMBAI: Can you smell the odor of palpitation? No, it’s not coming from the cryptocurrency traders; they are probably in mourning. It is coming from investors who have a large exposure to commodity stocks and it is pretty strong, one could say.

They can sense it; the rising risk of the dark green in their portfolio fading into light red as the ‘big daddy’ of the commodities market – China – makes its moves. The Chinese rained on the parade of steel stocks today as their move to curb the exuberance in domestic commodity prices cut deep gash into the fortune of metal stocks owners.

The Nifty Metal index slid over 3 per cent, the biggest sectoral loser in town, as investors got some sense of what it felt like being the owner of Bitcoin or Ethereum on Wednesday’s ‘Wild, Wild West’. And metal stocks owners can feel only some sense of the pain crypto traders are nursing because frankly no one can empathise with them at the moment unless you are Rana Kapoor.


Fertiliser makers don’t care!
Shares of fertilizer companies, naturally, had no time for empathy as they jumped in glee over the government’s sudden decision to make the cash rain from the sky instead of water that has been drenching parts of India after cyclone ‘Tauktae’. Stocks rose 1-5 per cent as fertilizer subsidies that the government will pay this year rose 140 per cent. That’s one way to soothe the farmers’ pain.

Banks are at it, again!
Talk about being the victim of your own success. The Nifty Bank slid over 1 per cent, adding to the fall on Wednesday, as traders said “you know what, I am going to take my profits of the past week and buy myself some donuts”. They did not actually say that but you get the sentiment, as most of them liquidated their long positions in the options contracts of the Nifty Bank index ahead of the expiry today.

We know it was not a good day for you on the trading terminal; so we will leave with a story about optimism.

Bosch’s EV optimism
Yes, another company is betting big on EV (sorry internal combustion). Bosch said that it will enhance its software technology on electromobility (read as, Tesla we will have what you are having) and will invest over a billion euros in new fuel-cell technology to store green hydrogen. The future is here, indeed!

Now, if you have had your dose of today’s action, we will part our ways because our order of donuts is still pending. Someone call, Zomato!