Metals Bulletin recorded a more than 3.5% rise in the 62% fines iron ore price to back over $US60 per tonne on the back of positive moves in the China steel market, while nickel gained nearly 3.3% on the Philippines supply disruptions theme.
The weaker US dollar was a broad positive for metals, while copper’s near 1% rise was also attributed by the ANZ commodity team to the fall in inventories – now down 11% over the past two weeks, with LME data pointing to 39% of all inventories being held by one party.
Poor old uranium’s gain came as Canada’s largest uranium producer Cameco slumped to a 12-year low (after recording a $C137 million second quarter loss), and the UK committed to a new nuclear power plant.
On the equity front, BHP and Rio were little changed in London, while Anglo American had a top session with a more than 5.4% gain after reporting results.
And though the gold price was a tad stronger, the diversified sector in Toronto put the gold patch in the shade with First Quantum rising a stellar 9.1% and Teck and Lundin up about 6.6% and 4.4% respectively.
The ASX Futures Index was showing a gain of 8 points pre-open.
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