Shanghai lead retreats as funds exit

SHANGHAI, Jul 22 (SMM) – Shanghai lead fell on Monday July 22 as funds exited after nickel stemmed its rally and as the lead physical market remained weak.

The most active September lead contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange market lost 1.05% on the day to end at 16,430 yuan/mt, losing much of gains from last week’s rally that was boosted by fund buying.

This followed the end to a two-week bull run of nickel prices.

Despite last week’s rally on the futures market, China’s physical market remained weak, with secondary lead quoted in a wider discount of 350-200 yuan/mt against SMM 1# assessments in Shanghai.