Nickel bounces on China growth

Industrial metals advanced amid speculation demand will be sustained as trade data from China, the biggest user, beat expectations and Premier Li Keqiang said the nation sees growth this year hitting its 7.5 percent target. Nickel climbed as much as 1.7 percent in London. Exports in September rose 15.3 percent from the same month last year, the most since February 2013 and beating the 12 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey before data from the country’s customs administration today. Imports jumped 7 percent, against projections for a 2 percent decline. Though China may exceed or miss its growth target, it doesn’t “face a hard landing as some say,” Li said in a speech Oct. 11. “The metal markets will take the data positively,” Daniel Hynes, a commodity strategist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said by phone from Sydney. “You may see a little bit of a short-covering rally on the back of it.” Nickel for delivery in three months was up 0.8 percent at $16,500 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange at 11:26 a.m. in Hong Kong.
Bloomberg 13th October