The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price lost gains made over the course of the trading day to close at $15,665 per tonne on Friday August 23, down 1.3% from the intraday high of $15,860 per tonne, despite a healthy 11,294-lot turnover, the highest since August 8.
A significant 22,620 lots were traded on August 8 when a short-covering rally driven by Chinese investment buyers pushed the LME three-month price to a $16,690 per tonne, the highest level in 2019. "As to the reasons for this sudden pick-up in volume we can only speculate... but what is clear over the past week is that mean reversion is taking back hold reflected in the options market where volumes have started to come...