Shares of Tata Steel have plunged 60% in more than two months, leaving investors guessing which direction Tata Group’s stock will take in a highly volatile market. The stock which hit an intraday high of Rs 1,386.25 on April 6 is currently trading at Rs 867.05, translating to a decline of 59.88% over the period.

The large-cap stock hit an intraday high of Rs 882, up 2.42% on BSE. Tata Steel shares are trading below the 5-day, 20-day, 50-day, 100-day and 200-day moving averages.

A total of 2.92 lakh shares of the company changed hands, representing a turnover of Rs 19.97 crore on BSE. The company’s market capitalization stood at Rs 1.05 lakh crore on BSE.

The stock reached a 52-week high at 1,534.60 rupees on August 16, 2022 and a 52-week low at 843 rupees on June 20, 2022.

Brokerages aren’t too optimistic about the stock’s prospects.

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CITI reduced its target price to Rs 1,085 from Rs 1,800 previously. However, he maintained his long position on the stock.

The global brokerage firm said: “Revise earnings estimates and cut EBITDA by 32%/34% on lower realizations following weak Chinese export prices. time to fish the bottom.”

“Tata Steel’s price to book value at 0.8x is not too far off one standard deviation below the average (0.7x). 0.5x in 2020 given expectations of a Chinese stimulus and a considerably strong balance sheet (possibly the strongest in 15 years),” the brokerage added.

Financial services firm Motilal Oswal has assigned a neutral rating to Tata Steel stock. It revised the target price to Rs 965 from Rs 1,410 earlier.

“We believe Tata Steel’s standalone 1HFY23 EBITDA is expected to contract by 66% from 1HFY22 due to lower ASP, lower demand and peak coking coal costs and the high base effect. Operations in India will not benefit from lower iron ore costs or discounted Russian coal. Therefore, the cost structure will only benefit from lower coking coal prices. for 70-75% of requirements, as Indian operations are captive to coking coal for the rest,” said Motilal Oswal.

“We reduced our consolidated EBITDA by 22% for FY23E, driven by a 34% reduction in standalone EBITDA offset by a 4% increase in TSE EBITDA. The reduction in national EBITDA is a combination of a) lower than expected sales volume, b) reduced ASP and c) higher than estimated coking coal cost,” the brokerage added.