By Andy House
LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Base metals buying and selling volumes shrank on all three main international exchanges final 12 months as commerce battle uncertainty and range-bound markets dampened speculative exercise.
‘Physician Copper’ has lengthy been a favorite metallic play amongst punters and sliding volumes have been symptomatic of a sector that was largely out of favour with the cash males.
The London Metallic Trade’s (LME) copper contract noticed exercise fall by 8% final 12 months. The declines have been extra pronounced on each the CME CME.O and Shanghai Futures Exchanges (ShFE) contracts with volumes slumping by 25% and 29% respectively.
Solely nickel bucked the broader pattern because of heightened value volatility and the steel’s electrical automobile credentials. Buying and selling volumes rose by 3% in London and by 40% in Shanghai, the place nickel has additionally assumed the position of junior accomplice in a proxy commerce with the a lot bigger iron ore market.
Exchanges cannot do a lot about…