Aluminium falls on worries demand may fall
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Copper dropped more than 2 per cent and aluminium hit a seven-month low on Tuesday as the dollar rallied, the oil price tumbled and investors worried about demand for industrial metals. ''It's gloom and doom,''said Mr Sean Corrigan, chief investment strategist at Diapason Commodities Management. London Metal Exchange three-month copper - often seen as a key gauge of real economic activity - had lost $145, or 2 per cent, to $7,160 by 0907 GMT, after shedding more than $200 on Monday.
Stocks high
LME copper stocks are at their highest since January, at 179,800 tonnes, up by 64 per cent since this year's low in May. Aluminium - used mainly in transport, packaging and construction - shed 1.1 per cent or $30 to $2,675 a tonne, the lowest price since Feb. 13.
LME zinc fell $39, or 2.2 per cent, to $1,736 after shedding 2.3 per cent on Monday. It hit a low of $1,720 earlier in the day, its lowest price since Aug. 20. Hurricane Gustav's softened blow on the Louisiana coast weighed on zinc prices. New Orleans houses about 61,000 tonnes, or 38 per cent, of LME zinc, and traders had feared supplies would be cut off if there was flooding similar to that during Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
Lead shed 4.5 per cent, or $88, to $1,847. LME nickel shed $50 to $19,150, after a 5 per cent slump on Monday in the wake of a big delivery of metal. LME stocks stand at 48,474 tonnes, their highest level in about four months.
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Source : Business Line |
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