SHANGHAI, Jan 25 (SMM) - The LME lead fell for two days early last week, risking $2,316.5/mt, and then kept rising for two straight days in the second half of the week, before pulling back slightly on Friday. The lead stocks across LME-listed warehouses continued to fall slightly. Both the longs and shorts reduced their positions, and the market transactions were cautious. The market will stand bullish in the short term technically.

The most traded SHFE lead contract risked 15,500 yuan/mt last week and hit the lowest point at 15,475 yuan/mt, before rebounding approaching the weekend. The weekly K-line rose more firmly on the decline of both one-year and five-year LPRs. The industry participants believed that the interest rate cut would help drive up the supply and demand in the real estate market and boost the non-ferrous metals prices.

The downstream restocking was about to end last week, and some lead-acid battery smelters have completed the stocking up and started the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday in advance. Although the logistics conditions slightly worsened last week, and the freight rose in some regions, the smelters still shipped the goods actively. The quotations were in wide discounts after the lead prices rose last week. The discounts in Henan and Hunan widened slightly to 50-150 yuan/mt, but the transactions were scarce. The discounts in Yunnan did not expand amid tight supply of concentrate and stood at around 200 yuan/mt for small orders. The mainstream quotations of secondary refined lead stood at discounts of around 200 yuan/mt over the SMM average price of 1# lead. Since the supply of secondary lead tightened in the market, the discounts in some regions stood at 50-100 yuan/mt. while the downstream held a wait and see stance towards the high prices, and they mainly purchased the goods on long-term orders for restocking. The market is muting amid weakening supply and demand.