SMM Evening Comments (Mar 26)

SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – SHFE nonferrous metals, except for zinc, closed lower on Tuesday. Copper fell 0.4%, tin, lead, aluminium and nickel lost some 0.3%.

The ferrous complex did not perform better. Iron ore and coke declined some 0.8%, coking coal, rebar and hot-rolled coil slid about 0.7%.

Copper: The most traded SHFE May contract fluctuated to end the trading day 0.37% lower at 48,230 yuan/mt, failing to recover from significant losses from yesterday. The contract continued to maintain some distance from all near-term moving averages. It is still expected to try to remain above 48,100 yuan/mt tonight.

Aluminium: The most liquid SHFE may contract traded rangebound to end 0.29% lower at 13,630 yuan/mt. Lower prices of raw materials and earlier gains in prices of aluminium futures pushed average profits on domestic primary aluminium production into positive territory. This weighed on SHFE aluminium prices. The contract is expected to hover around the 20-day moving average tonight.

Zinc: Shanghai zinc bucked the overall downtrend across the nonferrous complex today. As longs aggressively loaded up their positions, the most active SHFE May contract extended overnight gains to a high of 22,250 yuan/mt in nearly nine months. It gained 1.88% on the day and closed at 22,225 yuan/mt, with open interest expanding 26,896 lots. This helped the contract stand above the upper Bollinger band. It is expected to hover at highs tonight, with support at the 22,000 yuan/mt level.

Nickel: The most liquid SHFE May contract fluctuated to end the trading day 0.26% lower at 99,740 yuan/mt. Open interest for the May contract shrank close to 20,000 lots on the day, while that for the June contract expanded close to 12,000 lots. The May contract is expected to hover between 99,000-100,000 yuan/mt tonight.

Lead: The most active SHFE May contract came off from the day-high of 16,890 yuan/mt to close at 16,815 yuan/mt, down 0.3% on the day.  

Tin: The most traded SHFE May contract traded rangebound during the day, and fell to a two-week low of 146,400 yuan/mt at one point. It finished the trading day 0.31% lower at 146,940 yuan/mt and remained under all moving averages. Support is seen at 146,000 yuan/mt.