2023 in Review: Nifty Metal gains for 4th straight year; two stocks turn multibaggers, highest in any sector

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Jindal Stainless (JSL) has soared the most, over 130 percent, followed by Welspun Corp, which rallied 124 percent in 2023 YTD. The surge in JSL comes on the back of exceptional earnings performance. In the September quarter, the company's net profit rose 120 percent to ₹764 crore against a net profit of ₹347 crore in the September 2022 quarter.

Its total revenue came in at ₹9,797 crore in Q2, up 12 percent against ₹8,751 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal. Meanwhile, its EBITDA climbed 80 percent to ₹1,231 crore in the second quarter of this fiscal over ₹685 crore in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal. Net debt in the quarter came at ₹2,149 crore and the net debt-to-equity ratio was maintained at 0.2, which is one of the best in the metal segment, said the company.

Meanwhile, Welspun Corp also peaked on the back of the company's strong Q2 performance and future growth plans. The company posted a consolidated net profit of ₹386.59 crore for the quarter ended September 2023 as against a net loss of ₹63.18 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income grew almost 2-fold to ₹4,161.41 crore from ₹2,140.86 crore.

Meanwhile, its associate company East Pipes Integrated Company for Industry (EPIC) signed a contract with Saudi Aramco worth about ₹1,000 crore for the manufacturing and supply of large-diameter steel pipes. Further, in a recent exchange filing, the company said as a part of its ESG journey it entered into an arrangement for the supply of renewable energy under Group Captive Structure with Mounting Renewable Power Limited (MRPL), a subsidiary of Welspun New Energy. Apart from these 2 multibaggers, 10 Nifty Metal stocks gave double-digit returns while 3 were in the red.