Metal stocks surge over 8% as US-China tariff truce lifts market sentiment

De-escalation in the US-China trade war sparked a strong rally in Indian metal stocks, which surged over 8% on Monday. The jump came after the world’s two largest economies agreed to significantly ease their tit-for-tat tariffs for a 90-day period.

The rally was supported by a sharp uptick in global metal prices, driven by optimism that further tariff escalations may be off the table. An all-out trade war had previously raised concerns over a potential global economic slowdown, which could have weighed heavily on metal demand.

At the index level, Nifty Metal was up by more than 5%, with all 15 stocks in the index trading in the green. Lloyds Metals And Energy was the top gainer which surged 8% and it was followed by Hindustan Copper and Steel Authority of India (SAIL) which were up by over 7% each.

Others including Adani Enterprises, Vedanta, National Aluminium Company (NALCO), Hindustan Zinc, NMDC, Tata Steel, Jindal Stainless, Jindal Steel & Power, JSW Steel, Welspun Corp, APL Apollo Tubes and Hindalco Industries gained between 6.9% and 3.4% around 2:15 pm.

After their first talks since US President Donald Trump launched his trade war, US and China agreed in a joint statement to bring their triple-digit tariffs down to two figures and continue negotiations.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the weekend talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and international trade representative Li Chenggang as “productive” and “robust”.”Both sides showed great respect,” Bessent told reporters.US President Donald Trump had imposed duties of 145% on imports for China last month — compared to 10% for other countries in the global tariff blitz he launched last month.

Beijing hit back with duties of 125% on US goods.

Bessent said the two sides agreed to reduce those tariffs by 115%, taking US tariffs to 30 percent and those by China to 10%.

In their statement, the two sides agreed to “establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations”.

The mood was upbeat as the headline index Nifty soared to 24,842.75, up by 834.75 points or 3.48%.

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