METALS-Copper set for biggest monthly gain since Dec, nickel rebounds
Fri May 30, 2014 9:53pm IST
* Copper cash trades at premium to 3-month contract
* Nickel breaks 4-session losing streak, up nearly 40 percent in year
* Aluminium up 2.1 pct in May, biggest monthly gain in since Feb (Updates with closing prices)
By Harpreet Bhal and Eric Onstad
LONDON, May 30 (Reuters) - Copper prices dipped on Friday, but headed for their biggest monthly gain since December, underpinned by recovering demand from top consumer China, while nickel rebounded after four days of losses on persistent concerns about a supply shortage.
Aluminium was on track for its biggest monthly rise since February on the back of healthy demand, but an analyst was wary about further prices gains due to high stocks levels.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed down 0.57 percent at $6,845 a tonne as traders adjusted positions ahead of the weekend. It hit a near-three-month high of $6,966 earlier this week.
Prices for the metal used in power and construction are up 3.1 percent this month, the biggest monthly increase this year, boosted by seasonally strong second-quarter demand from China.
China is the world's biggest copper consumer, accounting for around 40 percent of global refined demand.
"We are quite optimistic with regards to China. We see that import data so far this year shows that Chinese demand for copper is relatively robust," Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann said. "There seems to be some real demand behind the drop in stocks and copper prices should continue to rise throughout the year."
Reflecting a shortage of available physical supply that is underpinning the market, copper stocks on the LME are at 171,350 tonnes, near their lowest level since August 2008. MCUSTX-TOTAL
The tightness pushed cash copper prices to $101 a tonne above the benchmark contract on Wednesday, the highest premium in more than two years CMCU0-3. It traded as high as $90 on Friday.
https://in.reuters.com/article/2014/05/30/markets-metals-idINL6N0OG24Q20140530