London Metal Exchange base metals closed Friday higher on technical buys, led by copper, as equities recovered and participants squared positions in positive sentiment seen extending into next week.
The market largely brushed aside modestly weaker-than-expected U.S. retail and producer price index data, with price support coming from a rebound in the FTSE 100, triggered by Wall Street's initial push higher, a broker said.
As of 1644 GMT, LME copper was trading up 0.5% at $7934 a metric ton, up 2.5% from the intrasession low.
Technical buying triggered a rebound in LME copper prices, sparked when a push through the 20-day moving average of $7,929 a metric ton attracted further buying, a broker said.
Ongoing LME stock withdrawals amid peak demand season in China has the metal on track for new highs within the month, said BaseMetals.com analyst Will Adams.
LME lead however, logged the largest percentage increase of the day, jumping over 3% intraday after a push through $2050 a ton triggered buy-stops said another broker.
China, which is significantly short of concentrate to supply refinery production, holds the key to further lead upside, said Barclays Capital in a daily note
The Chinese market is susceptible to external market forces, such as the closure of Ivernia's Magellan mine in Western Australia, which could amount to around a 40,000 reduction in lead concentrate, almost large enough to wipe out the expected 2007 surplus, the bank said.
Shipments from the mine have been suspended since mid-March, pending environmental investigation after 4,000 birds died from lead poisoning and lead levels in the blood of a number of local residents where found to be elevated.
Likewise, LME tin also finished strongly, due to short covering and pent up demand, BaseMetals.com's Adams said.
The metal rose roughly 2% on the day to $14,050 as of 1717 GMT.
Tin prices remain supported by supply-side damage, with Indonesia's output seen falling 30,000 tons this year, Adams said.
Although the government has been handing out export licenses to smelters, after closing many last October for tax and environmental reasons, LME stocks are below 80,000 tons approximately one-and-a-half week's supply.
Short-covering ahead of the weekend buoyed the rest of the metals, with aluminium up 1.3% from Thursday at $2875/ton, and zinc closing above $4,000/ton.
In news, Russia's largest metals producer, Norilsk Nickel (NILSY) said it has hiked investment by $1.32 billion for 2007, not including expenditures for acquisitions.
Norilsk intends to increase ore output to 26 million tons by 2015 from 21 million tons.
Norilsk Nickel is one of the largest metals producers in the world, accounting for 20% of all nickel produced. It also produces 40% of the world's palladium, 10% of its cobalt and 3% of its copper.
In other nickel news, global primary demand for the metal is expected to rise by 20,000 metric tons during 2007 to 1.41 million tons, from 1.39 million tons in 2006, due primarily to strong demand from China, the International Nickel Study Group said Friday.
And Russian export data released Friday showed that the country exported 900,400 tons of aluminium in the January-March period, 23.3% less than the same period last year. Nickel exports fell 7.4% to 57,600 tons in the same period, while copper exports rose by 1.7% to 78,800 tons the Federal Customs Service reported Friday.
Prices in dollar a metric ton.
3 Months Metal Bid-Ask Change from
Thursday PM kerb
Copper 7890.0-7895.0 Up 10
Lead 2085.0-2090.0 &nb
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