SMM Daily Review - 2011/12/8 Nickel Market

SHANGHAI, Dec. 9 (SMM) -- LME nickel prices advanced slightly to USD 18,134/mt after opening at USD 18,100/mt during the Asian trading hours on Thursday. The European Central Bank would announce latest interest rate result at 20:45 December 8th (Beijing Time). Based on result of survey conducted by authoritative media on 70 analysts, 60% of them believed that the ECB would cut interest rate on December 8th. Once the ECB announces interest rate cut, LME base metal prices are expected to rally in the short term. However, the interest rate cut will weigh on market sentiment in the medium term, as the interest rate cut is interpreted by investors as a response to sluggish economic condition. In this context, LME base metal prices will extent weak momentum for a certain period after interest rate cut. LME nickel inventories were 90,348 mt, down 162 mt from a day earlier.

In the Shanghai nickel spot market, traded prices of nickel from Jinchuan Group were in the RMB 129,700-130,000/mt range, and mainstream traded prices of nickel from Russia were in the RMB 128,500-128,800/mt range. Affected by Wednesday’s LME nickel price decline, spot nickel prices slipped on Thursday, but transactions did not change much from a day earlier.