The base metals complex showed mixed results in afternoon trading on Monday January 21, with London Metal Exchange-three month prices for copper, aluminium and nickel failing to live up to last week's universal closing rally.
The focus of the market remains on China's fourth-quarter data, which showed a further slowing of the economy at the end of 2018, with gross domestic product (GDP) growing by only 6.4% in the quarter, a 28-year low.The LME three-month copper price was the day's biggest mover and closed down by $71 per tonne to $5,981 per tonne.Aluminium and nickel followed suit, with aluminium closing down by $18 per tonne to $1,852 per tonne and nickel down by $20 per tonne to $11,800 per tonne.Increasing uncertainty about the Chinese markets contributed to more bearish sentiment throughout the day, with last week's bullish sentiment all but dissipated in the China-focused copper, aluminium and nickel markets.Bucking this trend, however, zinc's LME three-month price closed up...