Lead posts biggest weekly rise in 8 months despite fall

LONDON — Lead fell on Friday last week as some buyers cashed in on a recent rally but the metal still posted its biggest weekly rise since September after this week’s drop in available stocks, and as investors positioned for a market in deficit.

Despite Friday’s move lower, the battery metal is still up 4.5% so far last week.

“The market is quite tight and we’ve had a fall in stocks this year, which is supporting prices,” Capital Economics analyst Caroline Bain said, though she added that the metal was likely to struggle to extend gains in the longer run.

“The underlying fundamentals or the medium term outlook for demand we think is quite poor, because of the growth in alternative, greener batteries,” Ms. Bain said.

“But there is tightness in the market that will support prices at least for the time being.”

Three- month lead on the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed down 2.2% at $ 2,438 a ton, having hit its highest since late February on Thursday at $2,509.

On- warrant lead stocks in LME- registered warehouses those not already earmarked for delivery — were down 20,325 tons or 22% last week, although data showed on Friday they had risen 1,000 tons from the previous day’s low.

Lead inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 18% from a week ago to 12,676 tons, the exchange said on Friday.

LME aluminum ended the day down 0.70% at $2,263 a ton. Prices hit a seven-year peak last month after the US imposed sanctions on Russian aluminum producer Rusal.

Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska stepped down as a director of Rusal as part of a series of steps he hopes will persuade the US government to rescind the sanctions that have crippled his businesses.

Copper finished up 0.10% at $6,885 a ton.

Vedanta Resources plans to stick to operations in a southern Indian city despite deadly protests demanding the closure of its copper smelter on environmental grounds this week, a company executive told Reuters on Friday.

India’s Tamil Nadu state said on Thursday that it was seeking the closure of the Vedanta smelter.

Among other industrial metals, tin closed 1.3% lower at $20,150 a ton, while zinc ended up 0.50% at $3,050 and nickel finished down 0.80% at $14,780. —