SHANGHAI, Mar. 7 (SMM) -- LME tin futures contract for delivery in three months opened at USD 31,675/mt overnight, and closed at USD 31,575/mt, down by USD 50/mt from a day earlier, with the highest price at USD 32,100/mt and the lowest price at USD 31,250/mt. Daily trading volumes were 333 lots and positions were 20,578 lots. LME nickel inventories were down by 80 mt to 17,700 mt.                  

LME base metals largely ended with losses last Friday, due to slips in crude oil price and equity markets. LME tin prices moved stably and later even surged to above USD 32,000/mt during the Asian trading hours, but slipped suddenly at the tail of the trading and closed with losses during the evening trading hours.

This is mainly due to growing concern over oil price hike from deteriorating violence in North Africa and waning risk appetite offset positive sentiment from improved employment data from the US. The turbulence made investors seek products like gold, silver and crude oil to hedge against risks.

The US announced a series of economic data last Friday, including growing non-farm employment data, unexpected slip of unemployment rate as well as increases in factory orders. Due to exacerbated unrest in the Middle East, base metal investors, including LME tin inventors began to take profit after prices rallied to high level.

At present, base metal market is mainly affected by neighboring market and international incident. Political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa is still the great concern in the market. The US economic data show that the US economy is improving. Based on current performance, base metal prices can retain momentum to hover at high level despite corrections from the political tension in the Middle East. Current LME tin prices will continue to move weakly, with relatively strong resistance at USD 32,000/mt and support at USD 31,000/mt.

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