Nickel prices up on inventory decline

Metals prices were up on Wednesday. In precious metals, April gold was up $4.70 to $650.90 per troy ounce at mid-morning after having gone as high as $652 per troy ounce and as low as $644.40 per troy ounce. May silver added 9 cents to $13.075 per troy ounce, while June palladium added 10 cents to $352 per troy ounce. The exception was May platinum, which dropped $6.30 to $1,192.50 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, aluminium was 1.2 percent higher to $2,727.5 per tonne, while copper added 2.5 percent to $6,130 per tonne after a fire caused an output disruption at a mine in northern Chile. Nickel gained 4.2 percent to $42,100 per tonne after stockpiles in London Metal Exchange warehouses fell by 162 tonnes. Earlier in the session, nickel hit a new record high price of $42,300 per tonne.