Stand-up traders fined for bending LME rules

                                The London Metal Exchange (LME) has fined almost all of the dealers buying and selling copper on its open-outcry floor a total of £13,750 and suspended one for standing up during a session.

Seven traders were fined £1,250 each for breaking a rule that states dealers must remain seated at all times while dealing on the LME floor, known as the ring, the bourse said in a notice dated last Friday.

Two traders were each given £2,500 fines because it was their second offence in three to six months, according to the notice.

There were 11 LME floor-trading companies when the rule was broken on July 11.

The LME, which accounts for more than 80% of industrial-metals futures trading, operates Europe’s last open-outcry floor. Ten companies are entitled to trade in the ring, where dealers sit on red leather sofas in a circle measuring 6m in diameter.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, traders are in a pit with steps that allow them to see above each other. "The LME operates a ring, not a pit," Kathy Alys, an LME spokeswoman, said.

"Dealers that stand create an unfair advantage and might obstruct the view of other dealers and LME pricing committee members."

LME open outcry dates back to the 1800s, when merchants drew a circle in sawdust to trade tin and copper. While traders no longer wear top hats and tails, they still must comply with a formal dress code and rules, including buttoned shirts and a chewing gum ban. Breaches bring fines and penalty points, the accumulation of which results in temporary suspension.

The seven traders committing first offences were also given 20 disciplinary points apiece.

The two repeat offenders each received 40 points, and one of them was suspended because he had accumulated 60 points within three months.

Trading in the ring might be "unmanageable" and monitoring of trades more difficult when traders stood up, said Paddy Crabbe, a consultant and author of the Metals Trading Handbook. - bdlive

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Nickel futures up 0.35% on firm demand, global cues

 

               Nickel prices moved up by 0.35 per cent to Rs 1,145.90 per kg in futures market today as speculators enlarged their positions, tracking a firming trend in spot market on increased demand from alloy-makers. 

Besides, an encouraging trend in copperand other base metals in the global marketssupported the upside. 

At the Multi Commodity Exchange, nickel for delivery in August gained Rs 4, or 0.35 per cent, to Rs 1,145.90 per kg in business turnover of 45 lots. 

Similarly, the metal for delivery in July rose by Rs 3.80, or 0.33 per cent, to Rs 1,139.40 per kg in 926 lots. 

Analysts said besides rising demand from alloy-makers, a firming trend at the London Metal Exchange (LME) amidst reports that manufacturing in China, the world's biggest user of industrial metals, probably expanded this month at the fastest pace since March last year, influenced nickel futures. - economictimes

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Sumitomo Metal’s Taganito Project Ships First Nickel to Japan

               Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. (5713), Japan’s top nickel producer, said its Taganito nickel project in the Philippines shipped the first shipment to Japan in late October and is heading for full production from January.

The shipment carrying the equivalent of 1,200 metric tons of refined nickel arrived on Nov. 1 at the company’s Niihama refinery in Ehime prefecture in western Japan, company president Yoshiaki Nakazato said today in an investor meeting.

Sumitomo Metal said it will produce 30,000 tons of nickel in 2014 and 36,000 tons in 2016. Indonesia’s proposed ore export ban to promote domestic processing may affect the company’s ferro nickel production at its Hyuga smelter in Miyazaki prefecture in western Japan, which secures 40 percent of its raw material from the Southeast Asian nation, he said.

“If the ban happens, we will try to increase purchases from the Philippines and New Caledonia,” Nakazato said. Indonesia’s scheduled export ban will have an impact on nickel prices in coming months, he said.

Nickel on the London Metal Exchanged has dropped 19 percent this year, the worst performer among six base metals traded on the bourse, and was at $13,820 a ton at 2:05 p.m. in Tokyo.

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Base metals close higher

              Base metals on the London Metal Exchange (LME) have closed higher, after a senior Federal Reserve official said the bank may keep pumping money into the US economy beyond October.

At the close of open-outcry trading in the London ring on Friday, LME 3-month copper was 0.7 per cent higher on the day at $US7,295 a metric ton.

Aluminum rose 0.9 per cent to $US1,840 a ton, while nickel closed 1.2 per cent higher at $US13,985 a ton.

In early European trading, the metals were lifted as the US dollar weakened against other currencies including the euro, making dollar-priced assets more appealing to buyers holding the other currencies.

Analysts said book-squaring ahead of the end of the month and end of the quarter was lending support to prices.

Later, Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, suggested the central bank could refrain from winding down its support for the economy until 2014.

'We could make a decision in October,' Evans said on the sidelines of a bank conference in Oslo

'We need to see further developments of the positive variety for the economy to have that added confidence. It wouldn't surprise me if we go a little bit longer.'

The Fed's bond-buying program has supported demand for base metals by stoking activity in industries that consume the metals, such as construction and manufacturing.

Some market watchers said this week's moderate price gains were likely to be short-lived. Starting October 7, the base metals industry will gather in London for the exchange's annual LME Week.

'In the run-up to LME week in London, global manufacturing is showing signs of improvement and base metals may get a short-term price lift,' noted Barclays analysts in a report on Friday.

The bank added that emerging markets, big consumers of commodities, still look fragile, with much of the improvement in Chinese growth stemming from policy support to stabilise rather than boost growth.

Recent price gains will be difficult to sustain, said the bank, without a corresponding improvement of the supply-and-demand fundamentals that underlie industrial metal prices.

'We favour selling into this price strength,' it said. - bigpondnews.com

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Copper Below $7,000 for First Time in 18 Months as Metals Slide

             Copper in London fell below $7,000 for the first time in almost 18 months as data from Europe to China, the biggest user, raised concern that demand is faltering. Aluminum, nickel, zinc, tin and lead also retreated.

Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange plunged as much as 4 percent to $6,800 a metric ton, the lowest level since October 2011, and was at $6,840.25 at 9:38 a.m. in Shanghai. Metal for delivery in August was at 50,530 yuan ($8,175) a ton, declining by a daily limit, on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. The July futures contract on the Comex dropped 3.1 percent to $3.1035 per pound.

European car sales are sliding to a 20-year low as demand plunged last month in Germany. TheFederal Reserve said yesterday in its Beige Book business survey the U.S. economic expansion remained “moderate.” China’s first-quarter gross domestic product growth and fixed-asset investments, as well as March industrial production trailed economists’ forecasts.

“After breaching key technical levels, copper is in a downward trajectory,” Xu Liping, an analyst at HNA Topwin Futures Co., said by phone from Shanghai.

Courtesy : Bloomberg

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