The three-month price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange was lower at the close of trading on Friday January 24, losing more than 3% and sinking below nearby support to close at its lowest level in six months, while tin futures also struggled over the afternoon.
Nickel's outright price on the LME settled at $12,950 per tonne on Friday afternoon, losing more than 9% since starting the week when it was at a high of $14,175 per tonne. Turnover was at its lowest since December 24 at just 4,841 lots exchanged by the close.Open interest in nickel fell significantly overnight, with some 5,032 positions lost overnight to notch a total number of 336,511 open positions, with many participants liquidating their positions against the metal's volatile price.Despite this, many market participants continued to see nickel's rapid price decline as a dip-buying opportunity in the near term, with nickel futures sinking through two significant support levels...