LME Jan 24 Metal Review

LONDON, January 24 (LME) Copper rebounded from a one-month low Wednesday, helped by a sharp plunge in the dollar despite a sharp rise in inventories for the second day in a row indicating ample supply.

Nickel rose above the key technical standards, hit two and a half years high, lead and zinc have also climbed to multi-year highs.

London time at 17:00 on January 24 (Beijing time at 01:00 January 25) three-month copper soared 3.3% to close at 7,150 dollars per ton, the highest increase since October. Fell 2.1% on Tuesday, the lowest since December 19 6,885 US dollars.

Concerns about US trade protectionism and the U.S. Treasury secretary's speech on U.S. exports benefiting from a weaker dollar have weighed on the dollar to a three-year low against a basket of major currencies.

A weaker dollar makes dollar-denominated metals cheaper for investors holding other currencies.

Edward Meir, an analyst with INTL FCStone, said: "Today's theme is the weaker dollar."

Copper registered warehouse receipts in LME registered warehouses jumped 24,325 tonnes from 44,825 tonnes on Tuesday and registered warehouse receipts increased 51% since January 17.

Traders said that after the sharp surge in inventories on Tuesday, further increases in inventories have been expected in the market. "We have seen a substantial increase in inventories at all warehouses," one trader said, and has been a talk of the market for the past few weeks and is therefore not considered a problem for the market. "

Copper rebounded to the important technical level of the 50-day moving average at $ 6,944.

Analyst Helen Lau wrote in a report that an increase in LME copper inventories may reflect a decline in China's import demand. China imported 450,000 tons of unwrought copper in December, down 6.9% from a year earlier. Refined copper output hit a record high of 865,000 tons.

Futures rose above a long-term downtrend line, which started at the peak of 2011, triggering technical buying. Three-month nickel closed up 5.7% at 13,580 dollars a tonne.

Three-month zinc ended 0.8% higher at 3,440 U.S. dollars per tonne after hitting the highest level of 3,456 U.S. dollars since August 2007.

Three-month lead was up 1.2% to end at 2,640 dollars a tonne, after hitting an intraday high of 2,649.50 dollars since August 2011. Both metals are boosted by supply shortages.

Three-month aluminum ended 0.9% higher at $ 2,250 a tonne.

Three-month tin jumped 1.8% to close at 21,090 dollars a tonne.