Several Shanghai base metals gained sharply in Thursday’s morning session, after hitting multi-month highs overnight, as demand in top consumer China strengthened and investors worried about coronavirus-led disruptions at overseas suppliers.
Nickel ended the morning up 2.6% and rose as much as 5% in Shanghai night trading to its highest since Nov. 19, after key miner the Philippines reimposed a lockdown in parts of the country.
Zinc, the supply of which has been hit by mining curbs in Peru, was up 2.2% in Shanghai after hitting its highest in more than a year overnight, while sister metal lead was up 1.8% after touching its highest since Oct. 23.
“Compared with copper, the earlier rally in nickel and zinc was not much,” one trader said. “Given the current bullish base metals backdrop, these two are now making up gains.”
Shanghai zinc rose 11.5% in the second quarter and nickel 10.3%, versus an almost 25% jump for copper as Chinese demand roared back from a coronavirus-driven collapse.
FUNDAMENTALS
* NICKEL: The most-traded October nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange stood at 114,450 yuan ($16,483.04) a tonne, having touched 117,220 yuan overnight. London Metal Exchange nickel inched up 0.1% to $14,435 by 0347 GMT, after closing up 2.2% on Wednesday.
* ZINC: ShFE zinc was up 2.1% after hitting 19,550 yuan a tonne overnight, its highest since July 1, 2019, while London zinc eased 0.7% after hitting its highest since Jan. 22 on Wednesday.
* COPPER: LME copper shed 0.5% to $6,465 a tonne, while ShFE copper slipped 0.2% to 51,310 yuan a tonne.
* COPPER: Chile’s largest copper mines boosted output in June even as the coronavirus outbreak hit.
* STOCKS: LME copper stocks at 122,450 tonnes are at their lowest since mid-January and down more than 50% since May.
($1 = 6.9435 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Aditya Soni)