Asian stock markets are higher in today’s trade buoyed by Wall Street gains as well as relief that North Korea did not conduct another missile test to mark a military anniversary. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.32% while the Hang Seng is up 0.93%. The Nikkei 225 is up by 0.84%. Stock markets in Europe and US finished on a strong note after centrist candidate and market favorite Emmanuel Macron won the first round of the French presidential election.

Meanwhile, Indian share markets have opened the day on a strong note. BSE Sensex is trading higher by 157 points and NSE Nifty is trading higher by 48 points. Meanwhile, S&P BSE Mid Cap and S&P BSE Small Cap are trading higher by 0.7% and 0.6% respectively. Gains are largely seen in realty stocks, oil & gas stocks and consumer durables stocks.

The rupee is trading at 64.48 against the US$.

Reliance Industries share price surged 3% in early trade after the company reported a 12.3% increase in its consolidated March quarter profit, boosted by higher refining margins and better earnings from its petrochemical unit.

India’s finished steel products output is likely to increase to 88.6 million tonnes (MT) in the current year. The country’s finished steel output is also likely to increase to 94.9 MT in 2018. According to World Steel Association which released its Short Range Outlook (SRO) for 2017 and 2018, the country produced 83.5 MT of finished steel products last year.

The production of steel is expected to grow due to growing economy and increasing urbanization. Finished steel products are those which are obtained upon hot rolling/forging of semi-finished steel — blooms, billets, slabs. These cover two broad categories, namely long products and flat products.

As per World Steel Association, steel demand in the emerging and developing economies, including China, which accounts for 30% of world total, is expected to grow by 4% in 2017 and 4.9% in 2018.