Non-ferrous metals prices show mixed trends

Non-ferrous metals prices on all major exchanges remained volatile in the last trading session on 16 February, 2023. On the other hand, the US dollar continued to rise.

Three-month contract prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) remained in a fluctuating terrain yesterday. Aluminum prices inched up by 0.4%, zinc was down 0.5%, lead fell by 1.1%, copper rose by 1.9%, while nickel up by 1.3%.

MCX futures prices mostly opened at lower levels today. Nickel opened 7% higher at INR 2,450/kg, lead fell by 0.60% to INR 182/kg, copper down by 0.34% to INR 774/kg, aluminum fell by 0.47% at INR 211/kg, while zinc was down 0.26% to INR 268/kg.

China's new home prices rise in January

China's new home prices rose in January for the first time in 2023. It happened on the end of the zero-Covid regime. New home prices in January were up 0.1% month-on-month (m-o-m) versus a 0.2% slide in December, as per reports.

India

India's domestic aluminium scrap prices edged lower d-o-d yesterday due to falling futures and consistent price declines by primary producers.

Copper armature scrap and secondary rods prices in Delhi inched up yesterday. Market participants are still waiting with limited activities as LME copper futures are hovering between $8,870-$8,950/t from past few days. Mills have sufficient future bookings of the material in hand. Sources expect prices to go up in the near-term on positive demand outlook.

Oil prices move down

Brent oil futures down by 0.90% at $84.24 per barrel, while crude oil WTI futures fell by 1% at $77.62 per barrel.

Prices of natural gas were recorded at $2.4/MMBtu at the time of publishing this article. Prices of natural gas were down 3% as against the last closing price.

Dollar index

The dollar index, which gauges the value of the dollar in a basket of six different currencies, hovered around 104.39 at the time of publishing this report, up 0.51% as against the last session.

The rupee was recorded at 82.75 against the US dollar, depreciating 0.10 paise against the previous closing.