Non-ferrous metals prices witness an uptrend except zinc

Non-ferrous metals prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) depicted positive trends except zinc. The three-month futures contracts for aluminium edged up 1% to $2,271/t, nickel inched up by 0.2% to $23,034/t, and copper rose by 0.09% to $8,566/t, lead gained by 0.5% to $2,141/t. However, zinc fell by 0.1% to $2,478/t.

Notably, the stocks of copper increased by 14% to 90,625 t from 79,525 t.

COMEX market

Copper prices on the Commodity Exchange market (COMEX) have seen a drop of 0.3% to $8,557/t from $8,579/t on the previous trading day.

Major global happenings

Brazil's economic activity rebounds

In April 2023, Brazil's IBC-Br index, a leading indicator of GDP, rebounded by 0.56% from the previous month, surpassing expectations of a 0.2% increase. The recovery was influenced by a strong performance in agriculture. Retail activity saw a marginal rise (+0.1%), while services (-1.6%) and industry (-0.6%) contracted. Year-to-date, economic activity grew by 3.88% compared to the same period last year. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, Brazilian economic activity increased by 3.31% compared to April 2022.

EU: Employment rate increases, labour market slack dips

The employment rate in the EU for individuals aged 20-64 reached 75.3% in first quarter of 2023 (Q1 2023), rising by 0.5% points from Q4 2022. Concurrently, labour market slack, which includes those with unmet employment needs, including the unemployed, accounted for 11.3% of the extended labour force aged 20-64 in Q1 2023, showing a decrease of 0.1% points compared to Q4 2022.

India: Non-ferrous scrap market

Domestic aluminium scrap prices up

Aluminium scrap prices of some grades in India witnessed marginal upward movement on the last trading day. Participants expect prices to increase further in the near-term as major primary players' ingot prices are awaited.

Copper prices inch up

India's domestic copper prices rose by up to 2%. The copper futures moved up to $8,570/t, notably a gain by nearly $200/t w-o-w. Inventories of copper held in exchanges had declined to a 1-month low to 79,525 t on 16 June, indicating tightening supply conditions resulting into rise in futures prices from past week.

Oil prices dip

Global oil prices dropped over $1 on Monday due to concerns about China's economy outweighing output cuts and declining US oil and gas rigs. Last week, Brent and WTI both experienced gains of around 2.3-2.4%.

Brent oil futures as of today inched down by 1.04% to $75.81 per barrel. Similarly, crude oil WTI futures also fell by 1.13% to $70.97 per barrel.

Natural gas prices drop

Prices of natural gas were recorded at $2.581/MMBtu at the time of publishing this insight, down 1.94% as against the last closing.

Dollar index

The dollar index, which gauges value of the greenback in a basket of six different currencies, hovered at 102.29. The index remained largely stable with a slight rise of 0.05% against the last session.

The Indian rupee, along with other Asian currencies, declined slightly. Asian currencies traded 0.2%-0.9% lower today, while the dollar index stabilised following a 1.2% drop last week, the largest in five months.

The rupee was recorded at 81.96 against the dollar, depreciating slightly against the last closing.