* Nickel hits six-month peak, helped by China ferrous rally
* GRAPHIC-2019 asset returns: (Updates with closing prices)By Eric OnstadLONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - Zinc rose on Friday on concernabout shortages after inventories slid, but some otherindustrial metals were softer after factory activity in topmetals consumer China contracted.Zinc mines have been ramping up, but smelters have not beenable to keep up, so shortages of refined metal have persisted."Most if not all Western smelters are probably working flatout, but in China, with the environmental scrutiny clampdown,capacity is being cut and new capacity has been delayed," saidRobin Bhar, head of metals research at Societe Generale inLondon."The deficit in the refined market is being met by thedrawdown in stocks, so that's lending a lot of support to thezinc price."On-warrant zinc inventories in warehousesregistered with the London Metal Exchange, material that is notearmarked for delivery, fell to 46,000 tonnes this week, LMEdata showed. That was the lowest since at least 1998, havingmore than halved so far this year.Benchmark LME zinc rose 0.2 percent to $2,784.50 atonne in closing open outcry activity after climbing 13 percentso far this year.
* CHINA PMI: Some metals were pressured after China'sfactory activity contracted for a third straight month inFebruary albeit at a slower pace, helped by improvements indomestic manufacturing, a private survey showed on Friday. "There's still a lot of caution because of trade tensions,China slowing and physical premiums are tracking sideways," Bharsaid.
* COPPER: Three-month LME copper shed 0.5 percent
to end at $6,478 a tonne.
* COPPER STOCKS: Earlier this week, available LME copperstocks fell to 21,600 tonnes, their lowest since2005."The fact that spreads are not insanely backwardated atthese levels of stocks tells you that there is some metal aroundbut it isn't necessarily on the LME," said Guy Wolf, head ofglobal market analytics at Marex Spectron.The backwardation - the premium of cash copper over thethree-month LME contract - was at $44 a tonne onFriday, compared to a discount of $23.25 a month ago, but farfrom a peak premium of $149 seen in 2012.
* PREMIUMS: China's Yangshan copper import premium fell to as low as $48 a tonne, the lowest sinceApril 2017, suggesting weak physical demand.
* NICKEL: LME nickel , used to make stainless steel,finished up 1.1 percent at $13,195 a tonne after touching asix-month peak of $13,400, tracking the surging Chinese ferrouscomplex.
* PRICES: Aluminium added 0.4 percent to close at$1,918 a tonne, lead fell 0.4 percent to $2,143 and tin dipped 0.1 percent to $21,620.<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Tom Daly in Beijing; Editing by MarkPotter and Louise Heavens)