Base metals up marginally

Base metals in Mumbai edged up by Rs 5-6 per kg across all segments as traders returned to work.

Copper wire bar gained Rs 6 to Rs 428 per kg while armiture, copper utensil scrap and sheet cutting rose by Rs 5 to Rs 389 per kg, Rs 365 per kg and Rs 385 per kg, respectively.

Aluminium ingot also rose by Rs 5 to Rs 150 per kg on thin trade from a handful of stockists.

Zinc, however, failed to attract buyers as galvanising industry players were in no mood to book orders at such higher levels. They preferred to wait and watch till the metal takes an absolute direction.

In London, copper gained $221 to $8,591 per tonne following renewed interest by fund and speculative buyers. Nickel, tin and zinc witnessed investors' interest which helped boost prices by $350, $250 and $176 to $20,850, $9100 and $3,669 per tonne, respectively.

Aluminium and lead followed the trend, closing marginally up by $11.5 and $30 at $2,971.5 and $1,202.5 per tonne, respectively.

Domestic traders have already minimised their activities due to the skyrocketting global prices.

This has limited the deals in the market to need-based ones. Earlier, the deals used to be more profit-based.

"In order to keep their business alive, major traders book metals today. Otherwise, trades are on silent mode," a trader said.

"A recovery was imminent as fundamentals are strong. However, this level of metal price is not sustainable for us," another trader said.

The recovery after the collapse on May 15 is fuelling speculation that metals may climb to new peaks.

In the last one year, copper prices almost tripled and that of aluminum jumped 74 per cent as China increased its use of raw materials and investment funds bought commodities seeking better returns than stocks and bonds.