Base metals mostly posted strong closes on the London Metal Exchange (LME) on Friday, led by a rampant copper market, which shook off some of this week's torpor, with tight tin, lead and nickel also posting significant advances, traders said.
Conditions were thin at times, however, which tended to amplify movements and made for some volatile fluctuations.
"The market is a bit thin - it has been that way since the middle of the week. A lot of the Europeans have been out today as well after yesterday's (Ascension Day) holiday," a trader said.
Renewed optimism about the stability of the Chinese economy, a lower dollar and a downturn in oil prices all aided sentiment.
"It is all one-way traffic at the moment. Everyone wants to sell it and then everyone wants to buy it," the trader said.
"Sentiment plummets then soars and there seems little room for moderation," Triland Metals said in a weekly report.
"The message does seem to be getting through that any credit squeezing in China will not derail the continuing growth prospects, and the notorious hard landing should be avoided," the report added.
Copper was strong from the outset, but stalled some distance from the $2,700 a tonne level after hitting two-week highs. However, it still closed $75 higher at $2,664.
Traders said copper remained fundamentally strong, supported by continued stockpile erosion and market deficit forecasts for 2004 and 2005. News that unionised workers at Noranda Inc.'s CCR refinery in Montreal voted in favour of a strike mandate on Thursday was also supportive.
Lead charged through the $800 level on fund buying and buy-stops to hit six week highs, eventually closing the session at $804, up $24. The cash/threes backwardation widened some $10 to $47/49.
Tin motored higher, challenging the 15-1/2 year high at $9,200 at one stage before last trade at $9,080, up $80. The cash/threes spread remained extreme, trading at $500 backwardation.
Supply scarcity was underlined by news that jobless miners blocked workers from returning to Bolivia's Caracoles tin mine on Friday, keeping the deposit paralysed despite signing a pact to lift a siege that has lasted more than two weeks.
Nickel moved smoothly up from the $11,000 level to finish at $11,550, up $550, while the cash/threes backwardation nudged out to $110/140.
Earlier, Norilsk Nickel stopped loading vessels at its river port of Dudinka in Arctic Russia on Friday ahead of severe flooding caused every year by melting ice. Norilsk stops loading nickel, copper and cobalt bound for export - as well as concentrate for its refineries on the north-western Kola peninsula - for 30 to 45 days at the end of May every year when ice breaks up on the Yenisei river.
Last year, Norilsk's main export outlet resumed servicing ships and reinstalled all port equipment around June 24, but reopening dates vary every year due to weather conditions.
In other metals, aluminium rose to $1,642.50, up $18, but zinc lost $7 to $1,047.
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