If one watches the moves of Nickel in Indian futures markets on MCX platform it will give an imitation that it is not working. The prices have been static in last few trading sessions. All eyes are now on economic data and FOMC minutes due to be released later. This is leading to a mere disappearance of buyers from the Nickel contracts. MCX Nickel August expiry was quoting at Rs 865.8 per kg on Tuesday, unchanged from a brief trading session on Monday. LME Nickel forwards were up by just $ 42 to trade at $ 15542 per tonne.
Since steel demand has taken a beating in China and major stainless steel producers like Baosteel reduced the rates in July it was clear that the future for raw material Nickel will be dark. A limited support in the contract emerged when Indonesia called for ban in Nickel ores by 2014, creating near term tightness but the news was discounted soon as China jostled from the huge supplies of raw materials like Iron ore on its ports and dull demand for stainless steel.
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