VEDL

Vedanta Iron & Steel shares snapped a five-session losing streak on Friday, hitting the 5% upper circuit limit as investors returned to the stock on value-buying interest. The shares were locked at Rs 34.68 apiece on the NSE. Buying interest was also seen across other Vedanta group entities, including Vedanta Aluminium Metal, Vedanta Oil & Gas, and Vedanta Power. Vedanta Aluminium Metal gained 0.3%, while Vedanta Oil & Gas advanced 2%. Vedanta Power also traded over 1% higher during the session. The renewed buying comes after Vedanta Iron & Steel Ltd (VISL) released its first quarterly operational update since its listing on July 3. The company, which operates iron ore mining, processing, and steel manufacturing through Sesa Iron Ore, ESL Steel, and Western Cluster Ltd, reported total pig iron production of 291 thousand tonnes (KT) for the June quarter, up 8% from 269 KT a year earlier and 5% higher than the previous quarter. Iron ore production from the company's Goa mines surged 166% year-on-year to 0.6 million dry metric tonnes (DMT), compared with 0.2 million DMT in the corresponding quarter last year. However, output was lower than the 0.9 million DMT produced in the preceding quarter. Meanwhile, hot metal production at the Goa plant rose 12% year-on-year and 11% sequentially to 238 KT. In contrast, iron ore production from the Karnataka operations declined 46% year-on-year and 28% quarter-on-quarter to 0.9 million DMT.