Winter Park, Florida 01/07/2016 - Base metals on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose on Friday on hopes that central banks in all regions will soon launch new stimulus measures to shore up liquidity and growth after the UK's surprise vote to leave the EU.
Three-month copper bounced into the close - ending at $4,911 per tonne, up $66 on Thursday's close. Earlier, warehouse stocks fell a net 2,400 tonnes to 189,125 tonnes.
Nickel was the day's best performer - it climbed to its highest since November 2015 and closed at $9,975, up $530, after the new mining minister in the Philippines announced plans to review all mining operations in the country.
"We saw some fund buying on this first trading day of the new quarter. Some people think the Brexit knee-jerk was a little overdone, while there's an expectation that [central] bankers are eager to jump in at any sign of trouble," a US-based trader said.
Data today was mostly disappointing. The Caixin Chinese manufacturing PMI for June at 48.6 was below the forecast of 49.1 and May's 49.2. This was the third monthly decline in a row and the steepest deterioration in manufacturing conditions since February. It was also the 16th straight month where the index was below the neutral 50 value.
"Overall, economic conditions in the second quarter were considerably weaker than in the first quarter, meaning there has been no easing of the downward pressure on growth. The government must strengthen its proactive fiscal policy while continuing to follow prudent monetary policy," Zhengsheng Zhong, an analyst at CEBM Group, said.
China's official manufacturing PMI for June at 50 was in line with expectations and down slightly from May's 50.1. The country's non-manufacturing PMI for May at 53.7 was up from May's 53.7.
"The base metals seem to be taking all this in stride as it seems that weaker Chinese macro numbers are now being interpreted as reasons for further easing," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said.
In wider markets, the euro was 0.2 percent softer at 1.3285 against the dollar while the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 were up 0.17 percent and 0.24 percent respectively.
As for the other metals, aluminium was last at $1,664.00, up $21. Stocks this morning fell a net 5,750 tonnes to a fresh low since January 2009 of 2,382,100 tonnes.
Lead reached its highest level since March at $1,850, up $62. Inventories fell 75 tonnes to 185,150 tonnes.
Zinc climbed $51 to end at $2,155. Earlier the galvanising metal touched $2,161.50, its highest since June 2015.
Tin moved up to its highest since May 12 at $17,400, up $350. Steel billet was quoted at $300/325, cobalt at $24,050/24,500 and molybdenum at $16,500/17,000.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)