Mixed day for Cu on LME

Copper experienced a mixed day on the London Metal Exchange (LME) on Wednesday as spot and three-month prices went in opposite directions. After four consecutive days of falling prices, spot copper finally staged a recovery on Wednesday, adding almost 0.5% to its price to close at US$1.540/oz. In contrast, three-month copper fell 0.3% to US$1.463/lb on the LME. Dow Jones Newswires reported that copper availability in China is expected to remain tight throughout April amid sluggish imports and a huge domestic appetite. Deliverable copper stocks at Shanghai futures exchange (SFE) warehouses totaled 21,463t as of Friday, down 41.8% from a week earlier. OTHER METALS Meanwhile, nickel prices fell for the fourth consecutive day, with spot nickel falling 1.5% to US$7.137/lb and three-month nickel falling 1.6% to US$6.986/lb. Elsewhere, aluminum, zinc's and lead's spot prices remained unchanged on Wednesday. Gold also saw little change as its spot price rose just 0.1% to US$426.45/oz, while silver added 0.6% to its price to close at US$6.96/oz.