SHANGHAI, Feb.16 (SMM) -- During Wednesday’s Asian trading hours, LME nickel prices rebounded to certain extent after declining for three consecutive days. As of 3:00 pm, LME nickel advanced to around 30-day moving average, meeting strong resistance to climb further. During the European and the US trading hours, the Federal Reserve decided to announce January 24-25 monetary policy meeting minutes on 03:00 am Beijing time. According to the minutes, the US Fed decided to keep ultra-low interest rate unchanged, continue to implement “twist operation” and control yields of government bond. Fed’s decision may boost the US dollar index which has been relatively strong at present and may weigh on risk assets, including LME nickel.

In the Shanghai nickel spot market, mainstream traded prices of nickel from Jinchuan Group were between RMB 141,500-142,000/mt, and mainstream traded prices of nickel from Russia were between RMB 140,800-141,000/mt during the morning trading hours. As LME nickel prices advanced to certain extent during the afternoon trading hours, mainstream traded prices of nickel from Jinchuan Group were around RMB 142,500, and mainstream traded prices of nickel from Russia were between RMB 141,000-141,500/mt. Some downstream producers believed that LME nickel prices still had room to fall further, so they were reluctant to replenish stocks. Some traders were unwilling to move goods, believing that LME nickel prices will rebound in the near term. Amid mixed market sentiment, overall trading sentiment was cautious, and trading volumes were down from a day earlier.