Nifty Metal P/E at 19.2, as earnings keep pace with price

A rally, and a flat P/E

Nifty Metal closed at 12,913.65 on Monday, 8 June 2026, at a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.19. Its price-to-book ratio was 3.28 and its dividend yield 1.28%.

The index is up 37.3% in a year and up 15.6% so far in 2026, while the Nifty 50 is down 11.5% this year. Yet its P/E is almost exactly where it was twelve months ago. These are NSE's published figures, charted on the Nifty Metal valuation page.

Three measures, three verdicts

The comparisons start on 31 March 2021, when NSE moved index P/Es to consolidated earnings. For Metal, unusually, that raised the P/E, from 14.47 to 27.26 overnight. That leaves 1,278 sessions to 8 June.

• P/E: 660 sessions closed lower, almost exactly the middle. The range is huge: from 4.75 on 22 June 2022, when the earnings behind the index were large relative to its price, to 35.74 on 3 June 2024.
• P/B: only 35 sessions closed higher, about the 97th percentile. The high, 3.60, came on 27 May 2026.
• Dividend yield: no session since March 2021 yielded less. Today's 1.28% is the low.

The P/E says ordinary. The P/B and the yield say dear.

Earnings kept up with the price

A year earlier, on 6 June 2025, the index was at 9,406.45 at a P/E of 19.10 and a P/B of 2.71.

• Price: up 37.3%.
• Earnings behind the index (price divided by P/E): up about 36.6%.
• Book value behind it (price divided by P/B): up about 13.4%.

So the P/E held because profits grew with the price. The P/B rose because book value grew far more slowly than either. Earnings as a share of book, P/B divided by P/E, went from about 14.2% to 17.1%.

A large part of the earnings rise came in one step. On 18 May 2026 the earnings figure behind the index jumped 16.3% while the price fell 1.0%, and the P/E dropped from 22.88 to 19.48 in a session. Without that step, the P/E today would be well above its median.

The record and the pullback

Nifty Metal set the highest close in our record, which starts in 2012, on 27 May 2026: 13,718.30. On 8 June it was 5.9% below that. It has risen 15.9% since 30 March, when the Nifty 50 closed at its low for the year.

The yield fell in a step too. On 8 June the yield went from 1.56% to 1.28% while the price fell 2.3%, so the dividends behind the index, the price times the yield, dropped about 20% in a day. A one-day move that size usually means a large payment has left the trailing twelve months, or a member has changed; the ratio itself cannot say which.

Nifty Commodities alongside

NSE's broader Nifty Commodities index takes in more than metals.

Medians are since 31 March 2021, over 1,278 sessions.

Commodities' earnings grew as fast as Metal's, but its price rose far less, so its P/E fell from 18.05 to 15.00 over the year. It sits just below its median on earnings and right on it on book. It too set the highest close in our record on 27 May 2026, 10,503.20, and is 5.3% below it.

What this does not tell you

Metal earnings are cyclical. A P/E of 4.75 in 2022 came at a profit peak, not a bargain. A median P/E on high earnings can mean more risk, not less, if those earnings fall back.

A P/B this high has no precedent here. On the older standalone basis, from 2011 to March 2021, the P/B never went above 2.24. The two periods measure book differently, but the post-2021 range alone puts today near the top.

Big steps can be membership as well as results. The 18 May jump in earnings may reflect company results, a change in the index's members, or both.

These are indices, not funds. Sector and theme funds hold their own mix of companies and weights.

Where to go from here

The Nifty Commodities page has the broader index's daily series. For the market as a whole, see the Nifty 50 P/E post for June. Earlier in this series, Nifty Realty showed a P/E falling on rising earnings. The guide on how to read an index P/E ratio explains why cyclical sectors are hard to read on earnings.