Shanghai nickel rose on Friday to end a rollercoaster week on a high, as investors took up new long positions in the metal, which is used to make stainless steel, and as inventories fell. Deliverable nickel inventories on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) fell by 548 tonnes from a week ago to 56,194 tonnes on Friday, according to ShFE data.
Long positions among brokerages on Shanghai's most traded May nickel contract meanwhile increased by 6,853 lots after falling by 4,177 lots on Thursday. "Given the move lower was driven by long liquidation, it would certainly appear that some of this length has been re-established," brokerage Marex Spectron said in a note.
The May contract on the ShFE closed up 2.1 percent at 104,530 yuan ($16,655.51 )a tonne for a weekly climb of 0.4 percent. In London, however, nickel lost part of its Thursday gains, dipping 0.6 percent to $13,922 a tonne. Shanghai's most-traded March copper contract ended up 0.7 percent at 53,520 yuan a tonne, while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.8 percent at $7,177.50 a tonne at 0734 GMT.