Metal stocks move with copper, but copper buyers' stocks do not

Companies No. 36 29 September 2026 · 2 min read

Copper has gone up 3x in 10 years on the London Metal Exchange, from $4,672 a tonne to $14,539. Do Indian stocks tied to copper behave as you would expect?

Firms that mine or smelt metal should rise with copper. Firms that buy it to make fans, ACs and wires should fall, as their costs go up. The charts set copper in rupees and 6 stocks to 100 in October 2016.

1. The sellers behave as expected. Hindustan Copper, Hindalco and NALCO moved the same way as copper in about 2 of every 3 weeks.

2. They moved further. Copper ended at 446, NALCO at 1,098, Hindustan Copper at 814 and Hindalco at 627, counting dividends.

3. The buyers do not. Whirlpool, Crompton and Havells moved with copper in about half the weeks, like a coin toss. Only Whirlpool ended below where it started, at 75.

4. Why? Copper is one input among many for these firms, and they can raise prices. So copper risk sits more on the stocks that sell it. Cable stocks, which in theory should have fallen, did not, because over the years they have found ways to pass the cost on to their customers, among other things.

Copper in rupees against Hindustan Copper, Hindalco and NALCO, weekly, September 2016 to September 2026, all set to 100 at the start. The stocks tracked copper until 2020 and then rose further: copper ended at 432, NALCO at 1,340, Hindustan Copper at 848 and Hindalco at 666.

Copper in rupees against Whirlpool of India, Crompton and Havells, weekly, September 2016 to September 2026, all set to 100 at the start. The stocks wandered above and below copper with no link to it: copper ended at 432, Havells at 277, Crompton at 155 and Whirlpool at 93.

The London Metal Exchange copper cash price, daily, September 2016 to September 2026, in US dollars a tonne. It rose from $4,808 to $14,545, after a low of $4,618 in March 2020 and a high of $14,850 in August 2026.

Sources