Nickel Prices to Move Rangebound on Feb 17

SHANGHAI, Feb 17 (SMM)－SHFE nickel prices fell affected by the higher-than-expected US retail sales in January. The spot premiums of pure nickel were raised, but the absolute price of spots dropped by nearly 3,500 yuan/mt. The spot transactions and inquiries were acceptable. NPI sellers generally lowered their quotations yesterday, and the panic began to spread across the market. Due to the weakening of stainless steel futures and spot prices, some NPI factories and traders have reduced their quotations. On the demand side, the intraday spot quotations of stainless steel were stable with occasional drops. Some traders cut their prices to ship amid the high inventories in the market, thus the traded price continued to decline. In general, the demand for pure nickel grew as the prices dropped in the past few days. SMM believes that the nickel prices will move rangebound.