Steel makers today are the top gainers on the bourses; Bhushan Steel is the top gainer, up 4%; Tata Steel is also up almost 4% and Jindal Steel is up 2.3%. SAIL is up over 2%.

The steel stocks are up on hopes that the Govt will soon either impose a duty on Minimum Import Price (MIP) or an increase in MIP is likely in the next few weeks. The news is that the Govt is ready to impose more curbs on steel imports. If one may recollect, in Sept, the Govt imposed a 20% import tax on some steel imports.

In November, imports declined 7% to 0.76 mtpa.