SHANGHAI, Feb. 18 (SMM) -- LME tin prices opened at USD 32,450/mt overnight, and closed at USD 31,740/mt, down by USD 660/mt from a day earlier, with the highest price at USD 32,500/mt and the lowest price at USD 30,801/mt. Daily trading volumes were 658 lots and positions were 19,804 lots. LME nickel inventories were down by 60 mt to 17,610 mt.Cancelled warrants were 865 mt, accounting for 4.91% of total inventories.

LME tin prices recorded the sharpest decline among base metals on Thursday, and hit a two-week low. LME tin prices largely moved stably during the Asian trading hours and began to slip sharply from 16:00, with prices down by USD 1,599/mt. Bargain hunting during the European trading hours pared slight losses, with prices finally closing around 10-day moving average.

The US Investment Company Institute announced on Thursday that total assets of the US Money Market Mutual Funds (MMMFs)in the week ending on February 16th increased by USD 5.56 billion to USD 2.756 trillion. The US equity market closed with gains again. Turbulence in the Middle East triggered energy supply concern and boosted stocks in energy sector, but with a year-low trading volumes reported. Close attention should be paid to G20 meeting to be convened at the weekend, as the meeting is expected to discuss to cut world's dependent on the US dollar. In this context, the US dollar was relatively weak in recent two days.

According to data from World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS), global tin supply shortage was 18.3 kt in 2010, and market widely expects that supply shortage will fall around 15 kt in 2011.In addition, supply from Indonesia is still not optimistic.

Although favorable fundaments will continue to support bullish trend of LME tin prices in the long term, a technical correction is needed at present. SMM expects that LME tin prices will receive support at USD 31,000/mt on February 18th.

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