Nickel in biggest one-day gain in 19 years

Base metals prices saw substantial gains Wednesday as investors hoped that the US Federal Reserve’s move to cut interest rates Tuesday would provide a solution to global economic woes and raise demand for the metals.

Three-month nickel on the LME was up $3,300 to $34,050 per tonne, a gain of 11 percent after having been up as much as 12.2 percent earlier.

It was the biggest one-day gain for nickel in 19 years.

Copper was up 13 cents to $3.58 per pound in New York after having gone as high as $3.605 per pound earlier in the session, while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange added $315 to $7,895 per tonne after trading as high as $7,930 earlier in the day.

The gains came after the World Bureau of Metal Statistics said that copper demand had outstripped supply by 328,000 tonnes in the year to 31 July.

During the first seven month of the year, consumption of copper was up 4.6 percent from the year before, while production rose by just 2.4 percent.

Meanwhile, aluminium, tin, zinc and lead were also higher in London.

Aluminium added $98 to $2,505 per tonne while tin was up $265 to $15,275 per tonne, zinc added $144 to $2,984 per tonne, and lead jumped $100 to $3,240 per tonne.