Base metals prices show downward trend

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) showed a downward trend on the last trading day, although lead inched up by 0.58%.

The Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) was closed during the National Day holidays this past weekend.

US non-farm payroll data for September

According to the US Department of Labor, non-farm payrolls increased by 263,000 in September. Parallelly, the unemployment rate, which is derived from the results of a different survey than that which generates the non-farm payrolls number, fell by 3.5 percentage points.

US employers hired more workers than expected in September and the unemployment rate dropped giving the Fed more reason to continue with its aggressive monetary policy tightening.

Base metals market performance – 7 October

• LME’s three-month copper futures fell 2%, nickel was down 1.29%, aluminium decreased by 2.17%, zinc fell the most by 4.13% and lead rose 0.58%.
• On MCX, aluminium was down slightly by 0.9%, nickel decreased slightly by 0.6%, lead edged up by 0.2%, copper fell 0.8%, and zinc decreased by 2%.

Stock levels  up

Most base metals stocks at LME-registered warehouses increased by up to 2.55% d-o-d in the last session. However,aluminium stocks decreased marginally by 0.37%.

Oil prices rise

Meanwhile, brent oil futures rose 3% and were at $97.04 per barrel, while crude oil WTI futures were up 3% at $91.8 per barrel at the time of reporting.

Currency exchange

The Indian rupee was trading at 82.40 — almost stable against the greenback at the time of reporting.

The dollar index, which gauges the value of the dollar in a basket of six different currencies, hovered around 112.90, up marginally by 0.10% against the last session.