SMM Evening Comments (Jan 25)

SHANGHAI, Jan 25 (SMM)? 1/4 ?

Nonferrous futures performed strongly today except for a slight drop in lead prices. SHFE nickel surged 5.6% and copper rose over 2%. Aluminium and zinc both rose around 1% as tin edged up. 

Ferrous metals also traded up, with coke rising nearly 4% and coking coal up almost 3%. Iron ore gained 1.5% and hot-rolled coil was up 1.4%. Rebar traded 1% higher.

Copper: SHFE copper rallied firmly today, recovering the loss a day before. We see support at 52,500-53,000 yuan/mt but pressure remains at just above 54,000 yuan/mt.

Nickel: SHFE nickel is expected to stay rangebound tonight, when investors would look out for the interest rate decision from the European Central Bank and the US weekly initial jobless claims.

Zinc: Weak fundamentals are likely to drag any upward momentum SHFE zinc may have in following its western counterpart.  

Tin: We expect SHFE tin to be rangebound between 146,500 yuan/mt and 148,000 yuan/mt in the short term.

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