What's aiding the uptick in metals

Underlying commodities performed quite well on May 17 and all base metal prices snapped out of the kind of declines seen in the past six weeks. This week could be on the positive side as the last 24 hours have seen good gains — between 1-2.50 percent rise — in many nonferrous metals.

Metals saw its best session since April 2020 as London copper and Dalian iron ore prices advanced on optimism that COVID-19 lockdowns easing in China would lead to an improvement in demand.

China has enough inventories and the concerns lie outside the Chinese market. Aluminium inventories are at 17-year lows and copper inventories have been on the weaker side. Hence, there is tightness in the markets and as demand starts to pick up, markets do believe that there could be some support seen in metal prices, even if it is for the very near term.