Base metals broadly rise on weaker dollar

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Nov 10 (Reuters) –

Base metals prices largely rose on Thursday, as a weaker dollar made greenback-priced metals cheaper to holders of other currencies, while nickel was boosted by hopes of strong demand from the battery sector.

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Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.3% to $8,128 a tonne by 0618 GMT, while aluminum advanced 0.6% to $2,332 a tonne, lead eased 0.3% to $2,070.50 a tonne, and tin declined 1.2% to $19,590 a tonne.

The

dollar

struggled to sustain its overnight rally ahead of key U.S. inflation data due later in the day.

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SHFE nickel jumped 4.5% to 201,090 yuan a tonne and lead rose 2.1% to 15,580 yuan a tonne.

SHFE nickel broke the 200,000 yuan resistance on speculators buying into a positive demand outlook, following a media report that global battery demand is to jump to 1,406 gigawatt hours (GWh) by 2025 from the 490 GWh expected this year, said Marex analyst Zenon Ho.

“In the absence of any changes in the micro or macro, (base metals) should see a continued chop sideways,” Ho said, adding that uncertainty remained for the market amid global conflicts and the U.S. mid-term elections.

Chinese province Henan approved 26.2 billion yuan to support financing for troubled real estate projects and to ensure timely deliveries of presold homes, the National Business Daily

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reported

, which could help with metals demand.

The most-traded December copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange advanced 0.8% to 66,740 yuan ($9,202.85) a tonne, aluminum edged up 0.2% to 18,550 yuan a tonne, zinc declined 1.4% to 23,405 yuan a tonne and tin dropped 1% to 168,930 yuan a tonne.

Weak economic data from China and rising coronavirus cases in the world’s biggest metals consumer, however, continued to weigh on risk sentiment for the metals market.

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($1 = 7.2521 yuan) (Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; additional reporting by Siyi Liu in Beijing; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Janane Venkatraman)