Chinese lead futures advanced on Thursday, rising in step with growing signs of supply constraints caused by Beijing's crackdown on industrial pollution and falling stockpiles. However, copper and nickel futures were under pressure from concerns that excess supplies are mounting.
The most-traded lead contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange ended 2.37 percent higher 19,905 yuan ($3,040.14) a tonne, the highest in more than tree weeks. The contract rose 3 percent on Wednesday, leading gainers on the ShFE. It has risen more than 25 percent since the lowest close of 2017 on May 19. Lead stockpiles in China published by the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) were 29,850 tonnes on September 8 and have plunged more than 64 percent from a three-year high of 83,622 tonnes on May 19.
Shanghai copper lost 1.7 percent, while LME three-month copper dropped 0.5 percent to $6,512 a tonne, adding to overnight losses. ShFE nickel closed 4.2 percent lower. Three-month LME nickel was mostly flat at $11,440 a tonne after dropping 5.2 percent overnight on talk of higher supplies from Indonesia, a top exporter to China.