The news of the day is most certainly from China. Hebei, which accounts for about a quarter of China's total steel output, plans to slash 31.86 million tonnes of steel and ironmaking capacity this year. This is  more than double the 14.62 million tonnes of steel capacity that Hebei cut last year. This, the Chinese say is being done to cut down on smog and remove outdated steel capacity. Thus a stable downstream demand and reduced supply bodes well for the steel prices.

This is very good news for the Indian steel, iron ore and coking coal sector. Reacting to this news, the BSE Metal Index is up in the green, a rise of almost 3% since the opening bell. The rally is led by JSW Steel, National Aluminium, Tata Steel, SAIL, Jindal Steel; even the midcap and smallcap metal stocks are all up in the green.