Nickel inventories down to 7,000 tonnes in LME warehouses

Trade was slow in the metals markets on Monday. Gold was up $12 to $624/$625 per troy ounce after hitting a month-long high of $625.05 during the day, having gained 15 percent in the past two weeks on talk that the central banks in China and in the United Arab Emirates are thinking about increasing their gold reserves. Silver and platinum were up as well, to $11.27 per troy ounce and $1,242 per troy ounce respectively.

In contract to precious metals, base metals were mostly down, with copper dropping $80 to $7,240 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange. Aluminum was lower as well, by $30 to $2,600 per tonne. With inventories down to around 7,000 tonnes in LME warehouses, nickel bucked the trend and added $450 to $21,800 per tonne.