London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices, with the exception of lead, traded down at the close on Tuesday February 18, with any residual optimism capped by negative movements in global equities markets and restrictions in Chinese markets due to the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.
LME nickel futures were the worst hit, trading down 2.2% to close at $12,815 per tonne on the previous day's $13,110-per-tonne close. The price spanned a wide $295-per-tonne intra-day range, hitting a $12,890-per-tonne low and $13,185-per-tonne high, respectively.The LME three-month nickel price was capped by a 2,460-tonne fresh inflow of material today versus a 48-tonne outflow, taking LME global nickel inventories to 218,214...