In fact, other steel stocks too moved downward on the development in the US.

The scrip of private sector steel giant, Tisco, inched lower by 0.1 per cent to Rs 149.60 on BSE in mid-morning trades. It hit a high of Rs 150.75 and a low of Rs 148.55, earlier in the day. Around 1.44 lakh Tisco shares were traded on BSE thus far.

The stock has been a firm feature of the market witnessing a sustained rise on the back of a price hike in steel being effected and on expectations of a further price hike.

The scrip climbed 9.9 per cent to a 52-week high of Rs 151.25 on 1 January 2003 from Rs 137.55 on 17 December 2002. Profit taking pared some of those gains and the scrip subsequently slid to Rs 145.65 on 6 January 2003 only to bounce back from the low.

Some domestic mutual funds like Prudential ICICI and Unit Trust of India have been known to be actively buying on the counter of late.

Tisco has ruled firm on expectations of strong Q3 results as the recent price hikes are likely to be reflected in the results.

However, on Tuesday, the scrip is easing following reports that a group of US steel companies have urged the government to include India and other developing countries among those where hefty import duties are applicable.

The US last year imposed duties of 8-32 per cent on steel imports to protect its domestic steel industry.

The US had imposed these tariffs on 10 steel products but excluded developing countries like India from their purview.

Back home, as per reports, steel prices may go up further by Rs 500 per tonne from February 2003 due to low inventory levels.

Reports suggest that the current low inventory position is prompting steel makers to hike prices. This low inventory situation has been precipitated by rising exports as a result of increasing international steel prices (by almost 20 per cent within a month).

Flat steel product prices are also firming up in both, the domestic as well as the international market.

At the start of January 2003, steel makers had already hiked steel prices by an average of Rs 700 per tonne.

According to reports, in the current fiscal (since April 2002), steel makers have already raised steel prices by Rs 5,000 per tonne.

Tisco came out with solid Q2 ended 30 September 2002 results which were also boosted by an enriched product mix with the share of higher value added products in both the CR and HR segment going up.

For the quarter ended 30 September 2002, Tisco posted an impressive 642.6 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 203.18 crore as against Rs 27.36 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Net sales rose by 14.2 per cent to Rs 2,207.03 crore, from Rs 1,932.93 crore in SQ 2001. Improved price realisations lifted the margins of the company. It reported that about 65 per cent of the rise in profit in Q2 was due to improved realisations, while the balance 35 per cent was due to better product mix and increased volumes.

As a result, the relative cost of production as a percentage of sales came down at all levels.