NEW DELHI: Metal stocks were reeling under selling pressure during afternoon trade on Wednesday.The BSE Metal index was trading 1.24 per cent down at 12,672 around 12:30 pm with all components suffering losses.Nalco (down 3.73 per cent), Jindal Steel Power (down 2.95 per cent) and Steel Authority of India (SAIL) (down 2.88 per cent) were the top losers in the metal pack.Hindalco Industries (down 1.77 per cent), Hindustan Zinc (down 1.35 per cent), Tata Steel (down 1.23 per cent), NMDC (down 1.07 per cent) and JSW Steel (down 1.05 per cent) declined over 1 per cent.Vedanta (down 0.89 per cent) and Coal India (down 0.30 per cent) were also among the losers in the index around that time.Weak global cues, surging crude oil prices and a lack of fresh positive trigger at home were keeping the domestic equity market down.Investors were restricting their bets ahead of the expiry of June series of future and option contracts tomorrow.
Benchmark BSE Sensex was 95 points down at 35,395, while the NSE Nifty50 index was down 47 points at 10,722.Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty index, 13 were trading in the green, while 37 were in the red.
In the Sensex kitty, 7 stocks were advancing, while 24 were declining in trade.ICICI Bank, NTPC and Power Grid Corporation were among the top losers in the Sensex index.