* LME/ShFE arb:
* GRAPHIC-2018 asset returns: (Updates with closing prices)By Eric OnstadLONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Aluminium fell on Thursday afterthree sessions of gains, pressured by trade selling and bearishoptions activity, while copper gained on lower inventories andspeculative buying.Benchmark aluminium on the London Metal Exchange closed down 1.4 percent at $2,335 a tonne."Aluminium is finding very strong resistance just below$2,400. The reason is in the option market, which is mostlybearish on the June delivery," said Gianclaudio Torlizzi,partner at consultancy T-Commodity in Milan."There's risk of more downside and I think the market willtry to break the $2,170 support," he added.Aluminium had gained about $200 at this week's highs sincetouching a low of $2,175 on April 24.Also weighing on aluminium was trade selling, Alastair Munroof broker Marex Spectron said in a note.
* CHINESE DATA: Supporting metals prices was data showingChina's producer inflation picked up for the first time in sevenmonths in April, suggesting its industrial demand remainsresilient even as trade tensions ratchet up with the UnitedStates.
* COPPER: Three-month LME copper on the London MetalExchange climbed 1.6 percent to finish at $6,917 atonne, building on its 1 percent gain in the previous session.Copper was potentially forming a bullish inverse head andshoulders pattern on the charts, Torlizzi said. "I will be a bigbuyer of copper if it breaks above $6,930, the right shoulder ofthe pattern."
* COPPER PREMIUMS: The Yangshan copper premium was holding strong at $81.50 a tonne, up from $79 last week and$71.50 in January, according to Shanghai Metals Market.
* INVENTORIES: On-warrant copper stocks inLME-registered warehouses - metal not earmarked for delivery -fell another 9,575 tonnes to 230,575, their lowest since lateJanuary and down 29 percent in the last three weeks.
* ZINC: LME zinc rose 0.4 percent to end at $3,087 atonne, but Simona Gambarini, commodities economist at CapitalEconomics, expects prices to lose ground partly due to risingsupply."We expect a sharp increase in mine supply this year - wehave pencilled in a 6 percent rise," she said in a note."Indeed, there are signs that metal availability, at bothconcentrate and refined level, is improving."
* NICKEL: Nickel shed 0.3 percent to $13,880 atonne.
"Formation of monthly shooting star denotes sudden reductionin bullish momentum," St?(C)phanie Aymes, head of technicalanalysis at Societe Generale, said in a note. "Graphical lows of$13,000 will be a pivotal support."
* PRICES: Lead added 0.5 percent to close at $2,305a tonne and tin dropped 1.4 percent to $20,825.
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top base and precious metals analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Tom Daly in Beijing; Editing by JonBoyle and Mark Potter)