The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was pushed higher at the close of trading on Wednesday August 5 by a flurry of panic-buying against the monthly options expiry deadline, while zinc notched its highest close since January.
Nickel's outright price on the LME closed at $14,419 per tonne on Wednesday afternoon, its highest close of the year while trading volumes were the highest since March 19 at more than 14,000 lots exchanged by the close. It was a spate of afternoon panic-buying spurred by the monthly options expiry deadline that caused the LME nickel price to climb from an intraday low of $14,005 per tonne, while a declining dollar index continued to support metal financing. Strong forward buying in...