SMM Evening Comments (Mar 13)

SHANGHAI, Mar 13 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals saw mixed trading today as aluminium led losses with a drop of nearly 2%. SHFE lead fell over 1%, while copper and tin edged down. Zinc and nickel inched up.

The ferrous complex fell across the board as coking coal led the slump with a drop of more than 3%. Coke fell over 2%. Rebar, iron ore, and hot-rolled coil edged down.

Copper: The SHFE 1805 contract came off from a high of 52,110 yuan/mt after short bets entered the market. We see it trading rangebound in the short term with strong resistance at the 52,000 yuan/mt level. The US consumer price index (CPI) in February will give more guidance to the market tonight.

Aluminium: SHFE aluminium regained some ground in the afternoon to close at 13,860 yuan/mt. We expect it to trade with downward pressure in the short term.

Zinc: SHFE zinc traded rangebound today. We see limited upward room given bearish sentiments. We expect it to consolidate above 25,000 yuan/mt tonight.

Nickel: SHFE nickel traded rangebound today and closed at 103,440 yuan/mt, slightly up from the previous day. We see it trading rangebound tonight, with investors taking cues from the US' February CPI data.

Tin: SHFE tin edged down today and fell to a low of 146,100 yuan/mt. We see downward room in prices tonight and expect it to test support at 145,000 yuan/mt in the short term.