Today morning, most of the shipping stocks are in the green, led by Great Eastern Shipping. The stock is up over 2% at Rs.298, and this is after having hit an intra day high at Rs.299.

The shipping stocks are up as the Baltic Index is gaining strength after a long time. The index, which is an indicator of load of dry-bulk commodities such as coal, iron ore and grains has been up over 45% since the last one month. This is due to increased shipments from China, mainly of iron ore. Shipping rates in the spot market are said to have increased in the range of 40-70%. Demand is stated to very buoyant and even small sized ships are sailing high. Demand is expected to keep the prices high and shipping companies, after a ling haitus are finally reaping some money.