LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - Copper futures jumped in London on Thursday and nickel hit a record high as confidence returned to equity markets and investors concentrated on supply and demand, analysts said.
Mining stocks were top performers in London as metals prices firmed, with Kazakhmys (KAZ.L: Quote, Profile , Research) tacking on 2.9 percent, Vedanta (VED.L: Quote, Profile , Research) rising 2.8 percent, Antofagasta (ANTO.L: Quote, Profile , Research) gaining 3.1 percent and BHP Billiton (BLT.L: Quote, Profile , Research) adding 1.9 percent.
London Metal Exchange copper for delivery in three months ended up at $6,275 per tonne up $135 from Wednesday's close. Earlier copper touched $6,330, the highest since Monday last week.
"What happened on the stock markets looks like a correction rather than a sea change, so we are back to where we were," a trader on the LME floor said. "China, the biggest buyer, has not gone away in the past week."
Analysts at Standard Bank said metals were recovering as the shockwaves of the recent global selloff subside.
"Copper and zinc have suffered a similar fate in the early months of 2007; an overly aggressive technical sell-off. As forecast, they are both now in recovery mode, and we believe we have now seen the lows for these metals for this year," the bank said in a market report.
"For copper prices, we see plenty of support going forward and the potential for upside surprises."
Copper was badly knocked when investors sold risky assets including commodities in the worldwide sell-off last week and earlier this week, but has recovered by more than $500 since Tuesday.
Steelmaking raw material nickel extended its sequence of hitting new highs, this time touching $43,261 a tonne, before ending the session at $42,850 from Wednesday's $40,400.
French metals group Eramet (ERMT.PA: Quote, Profile , Research), which reported a 60 percent rise in operating income at its nickel division, described current prices as "speculative and vulnerable to any slowing of demand" [ID:nL08418614].
Still, with the past week's global flight from risk apparently over, investors will once again turn their attention to an underlying picture of tight supply and strong demand, UBS head of base metals strategy John Reade said in a note.
"With risk aversion less of a factor we expect the tight supply/demand fundamentals to come to the fore ahead of the onset of the peak demand season and for higher prices to reflect this," he said.
AS I'VE SAID BEFORE FROM MARCH THROUGH TO AUGUST REPRESENTS THE PEAK BUYING SEASON AND BRING IT ON I RECKON. GOOD TO SEE ZINC MOVING AGAIN AFTER ITS TECH CORRECTION. TOP UP THOSE MCR AND ZFX KIDDIES!
DEMAND/SUPPLY DEMAND/SUPPLY DEMAND/SUPPLY Make it Nickels mantra.
3rd qtr upon us and wont it be huge.
MCR Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
