Aluminium weighed down by options activity, copper gains

LONDON: Aluminium fell on Thursday after three sessions of gains, pressured by trade selling and bearish options activity, while copper gained on lower inventories and speculative buying.

Benchmark aluminium on the London Metal Exchange closed down 1.4 percent at $2,335 a tonne.

"Aluminium is finding very strong resistance just below $2,400. The reason is in the option market, which is mostly bearish on the June delivery," said Gianclaudio Torlizzi, partner at consultancy T-Commodity in Milan.

"There's risk of more downside and I think the market will try to break the $2,170 support," he added.

Aluminium had gained about $200 at this week's highs since touching a low of $2,175 on April 24.

Also weighing on aluminium was trade selling, Alastair Munro of broker Marex Spectron said in a note.