Why have paper company stocks like JK Paper, Tamil Nadu Newsprint, Ruchira Paper and Star Paper rally so hard in recent days?

Shares of paper companies rallied 10-15%, amid heavy volumes. The expectation is that the reopening of offices, educational institutions and courts would lead to regularization of demand for paper. In the last couple of years, the demand for paper was negatively impacted by the large scale digitisation in education sector with emphasis for online classes. With conditions returning to normalcy, paper demand is likely to be robust.

In the last quarter, paper companies had reported recovery in performance on the back of growth in production and sales volume coupled with more robust realisations. This was even in the midst of steep input costs spikes during the period. The market for writing and printing paper in India is likely to grow at 4%, which is higher than the global average. The market for packaging board is likely to grow at 10% catalysed by personal consumption and the growing substitution of plastic products.