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London (AFP) – Nickel trading resumed on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday but was halted again almost immediately after prices hit the daily 5% variation limit.
“After the reopening, the market approached its lower price limit,” said the LME, which also indicates that it halted the electronic market to “investigate a potential problem with the lower price limit”.
“We will inform the market in due course,” the metal exchange said.
On Wednesday, a tonne of nickel was trading at $43,995.00 on the LME when trading halted shortly after resuming at 08:00 GMT. This corresponds to a fall of 8% compared to the price stopped at the close on Monday March 7, the last trading session taken into account by the stock exchange.
The LME had announced on Tuesday that trading would resume with “daily price limits in both directions” set at 5%.
Nickel trading on the LME had been suspended since last Tuesday, after the “devil metal” briefly topped $100,000 a tonne, from just over $20,000 at the start of the year.
All trades on March 8, however, were cancelled, including the breakout at over $100,000 per tonne. The record for nickel thus stands at 48,002 dollars per ton, recorded the day before.
Russia is the world’s third largest producer of nickel. The war in Ukraine sent metal prices soaring to record highs, but this extraordinary and unprecedented move was largely due to risky speculation by Chinese billionaire Xiang Guangda.
Mr. Xiang bet on a fall in prices, against the market. His Tsingshan group, world leader in nickel and stainless steel, then found itself with colossal losses and was forced to liquidate its positions by buying contracts, causing prices to rise sharply.
© 2022 AFP