Aluminium extends gain over renewed Russia supply concerns

ALUMINIUM TRAD ED HIGHER AT THE CLOSE OF TRADING ACTIVITIES AFTER PEACE TALKS BE TWEEN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE failed to secure a ceasefire in the near-four-week-old war, renewing worries over supply tightness of the light weight metal.

Dealers noted that the market is concerned that the Ukraine conflict could persist for longer, leading to refocused attention on worries about supply for aluminium and nickel, major base metals from Russia.

The value of aluminium was also buoyed by calmer conditions in top metals consumer China, where the government has launched a strategy to deal with rising COVID infections in the country, with minimal damage to the economy.

Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME) gained one percent to $3,418 a tonne, but was down about one percent on the week.

The most-traded April aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures service is conducting “anti-cartel” inspections at major sugar producers due to a sharp increase in sugar prices, in what it termed “unjustified”

Exchange (ShFE) was up 3.3 percent to 22,810 yuan a tonne.

Commenting on China’s metal market following the COVID outbreak, Xiao Fu, head of commodity market strategy at Bank of China International, observed that people were very worried that the Asian powerhouse would suffer a sharper than expected slowdown.

Fu however noted that the situation seems to be under control now, as well as financial markets, after the regulator came in to support sentiment.

Meanwhile, market data showed that China’s aluminium imports in the first two months of 2022 were down 26.2 percent from a year earlier.

The week also ended bullish for the other base metals except nickel, which fell 12 percent to $36,915 a tonne.

Copper climbed 0.6 percent to $10,302.50 a tonne, zinc gained 0.3 percent to $3,838.50 a tonne, lead added 0.6 percent to $2,265.50 a tonne, and tin was up 1.8 percent to $42,460 a tonne. shortages in some regions.

On the other hand, coffee futures plummeted as May arabica coffee dropped one percent to $2.1545 per lb, but

WHEAT FUTURES, WHICH HAVE BEEN EXTREME LY VOLATILE SINCE RUSSIA’S INVASION OF UKRAINE due to heavy reliance on export from both countries through the Black Sea region, slipped on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) as traders monitored diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, while gauging a continuous disruption to Black Sea grain exports.

The most-active wheat contract lost 1.5 percent at $10.82 a bushel. Corn futures also traded lower, losing 0.4 percent at $7.51-3/4 a bushel as the feed grain market also assessed the extent to which the conflict in Ukraine could stall Black Sea exports.

GOLD FUTURES PLUNGED AS THE DOLLAR STRENGTHENED AGAINST ITS RI VALS, hurting appetite for bullion for buyers overseas, while the safe-haven demand for the yellow metal spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine lost momentum.

As a result, gold plummeted for a second consecutive week to its biggest weekly decline in percentage terms, since November.

The most-active gold futures contract on New York’s Comex was down $13.90, or 0.7 percent at $1,929.30 an ounce. For the week, the benchmark gold futures contract fell 2.8 percent, its most since the week to November 19, 2021.

Ed Moya, analyst for Europe at online trading platform, OANDA, explained that the dollar is seeing massive inflows, leading to a shortterm “troubling” for commodities, particularly gold.

Moya added that the dollar will benefit from a rapidly improving interest rate differential and steady safe-haven flows as investors get