* GRAPHIC-2019 asset returns: (Adds Zambia copper output, updates prices)By Eric OnstadLONDON, July 18 (Reuters) - Nickel prices charged to a newone-year peak on Thursday as more speculators piled in,prompting jitters among some investors that the rally hadentered bubble territory.Nickel - used to make stainless steel and batteries forelectric vehicles - has surged by nearly a quarter since July 2on the London Metal Exchange, fuelled by demand from acombination of industrial buyers and speculators, traders say.Shanghai nickel prices rose the maximum 6% on Thursday,extending their rally into a ninth day."It's overbought, but the trend is clearly up," saidGianclaudio Torlizzi, partner at consultancy T-Commodity inMilan. "I know that lots of players are hedging by buying putsin the market, that's the smart thing to do."Xu Aidong, chief nickel analyst at research house Antaike,said nickel's run was spurred by a 10% jump in China's stainlesssteel output in the first half of the year.A looming ban on Indonesian nickel ore exports is stillaffecting prices even though it will not come into force until2022, Xu added. LME benchmark nickel had climbed 4.6% to $15,105 atonne by 1415 GMT, the highest since June 29 last year.Nickel volume was 15,227 lots, nearly surpassing the levelsfor copper and aluminium combined, which are usually theheaviest traded metals.
* SHANGHAI NICKEL: The most traded August nickel contract onthe Shanghai Futures Exchange rose to the highest sinceJune 29, 2018.Market open interest in Shanghai nickel, a measure ofliquidity, increased to the highest since April, and was up morethan 50% since July 5.The trading volume for the most active contract on Thursdaywas around 1.26 million lots, almost double the 30-day average.
* NICKEL STOCKS/SPREADS: LME nickel inventories have slid by 43% over the past 12 months to theweakest since January 2013.The discount of cash LME nickel to the three-month contract more than halved to $31 a tonne by Wednesday's closefrom $66 a day earlier, indicating tighter availability ofnear-term supplies.
* COLUMN: Nickel jumps, but fear of Indonesia export ban isunfounded: Andy Home
* TC/RCs: China's top copper smelters on Thursday loweredtheir floor treatment and refining charges for the third quarterby 24.7%,
* ZAMBIA COPPER: Copper output in Africa's second-largestproducer Zambia dropped 4% in the first six months of the year.
* PRICES: LME copper added 0.1% to $5,987 a tonneand aluminium edged up 0.3% to $1,853.Zinc gained 0.3% to $2,483 after hitting $2,504, thehighest since July 1, lead gained 1.5% to a three-monthhigh of $2,038 and tin rose 0.1% to $17,945.
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or ($1 = 6.8767 Chinese yuan) (Additional reporting by Tom Daly in Beijing; Editing byKirsten Donovan and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)