SHANGHAI, Jan. 14 (CBI China) -- Basic metals yesterday declined in early trading and then rebounded sharply in the evening. Copper and nickel experienced larger growth rate, and the position increased by 6,531 lots and 1,290 lots respectively. The two metals were expected to be bought the largest volumes by the index funds, so this increase was due to the buy order of index funds. As the adjustment of index fund will be finished this weekend, nickel prices are unlikely to decline sharply, and will fluctuate narrowly in the USD 10,500-11,200/mt range.  

    Crude oil prices rebounded slightly due to the production cuts expectations of OPEC. U.S. stock markets were mixed with ups and downs, the financial stocks began to rebound affected by the reorganization of Citigroup, the bad quarterly report of Alcoa led to the downward trend of bulk commodities trade.  

    Industry data released yesterday are: 

    Up to now, the inventories increased only 2.7 kt in Wuxi market, the total inventories was 79.3 mt. Specific data are as follows: nickel 200 inventories increased by 400 mt to 13.2 kt, nickel 300 inventories increased by 1400 mt to 50.9 kt, nickel 400 inventories increased by 1100 mt to 15.2 kt.

    In November 2008, the U.S. nickel imports fell by 23.8% YoY, while exports increased by 157.6% YoY.

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