Copper rose for the first time in five days and nickel trimmed earlier losses after a gauge of manufacturing for China, the biggest consumer of industrial metals, beat estimates.
Copper climbed as much as 0.8 percent in London, while nickel pared losses after falling as much as 3.2 percent. The preliminary Purchasing Managers Index reading for Chinese manufacturing rose to 50.5 from 50.2 in August, exceeding the median estimate of 50 in Bloomberg survey of economists, according to data today from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics. Readings above 50 indicate expansion.
“It’s all about China,” Chae Un Soo, a metals trader at Korea Exchange Bank Futures Co., said by phone today from Seoul. “Today, we got better-than-expected results from the manufacturing PMI, which has helped the prices up for metals,” improving short-term sentiment, he said.
Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.7 percent to $6,764.75 a metric ton at 10:22 a.m. in Hong Kong. Today’s gain reduced this year’s loss to 8.1 percent, still the worst-performing base metals on the bourse.
Nickel in London earlier touched $16,483. If prices ended below $16,800, or 20 percent below the closing high of $21,000 on May 13, the metal falls into a bear market, meeting the common definition of the market status.
Prices of the metal rose as much as 56 percent in 2014, entering a bull market March 18 after a ban on ore exports went into effect in January in Indonesia, the top nickel ore miner.
“You have a look at the nickel inventory run-up over the last 18 months and it’s been quite a strong run,” David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets, said by phone from Sydney. “There’s plenty of nickel in inventory to cover production for a wee while.”
LME stockpiles for nickel have increased 30 percent this year to 339,036 tons as of Sept. 22, according to exchange data. They reached an all-time high on Sept. 18, the data showed. China’s nickel ore imports from the Philippines climbed 6.4 percent in August to a record 5.33 million tons, Chinese customs data showed Sept. 22.
On the LME, zinc and lead advanced, while aluminum was little changed and tin was unchanged.
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