SMM Daily Review - 2011/10/26 Nickel Market

SHANGHAI, Oct. 27 (SMM) -- LME nickel prices advanced to hit a high of USD 19,889/mt after opening at USD 19,275/mt during the Asian trading hours on Thursday. The Germany Parliament approved expansion plan of EFSF. In addition, newly released economic data from the US were better than market expectation. Furthermore, China might change its tightening policies. These postiv news continued to boost base metal price on Thursday. LME nickel inventories were 88,128 mt, up 540 mt from a day earlier.

In the Shanghai nickel spot market, spot prices slipped slightly on Thursday. Mainstream traded prices of nickel from Russia were between RMB 139,000-139,500/mt, and mainstream traded prices of nickel from Jinchuan Group were around RMB 141,000/mt. Although LME nickel prices advanced on Thursday, trading sentiment in spot market was lackluster. Transactions only improved slightly  from a day earlier, but were still considered sluggish. Downstream consumers and traders both had low interest in purchasing goods. Although goods news came one after another recently, the unsolved European debt crisis made market players conduct transactions cautiously.