Nickel prices were steady at Rs 1,233.40 per kg on November 30 as participants increased their long position as seen by the open interest. The base metal traded firm, tracking weakness in the dollar.
It traded bullish in November on increased demand from China and other Asian countries.
The US dollar traded weaker at 91.61 or up 0.21 percent in the evening session.
MCX iCOMDEX Base Metal Index was up 155.36 points, or 1.15 percent, at 13,699.60 at 19:20.
Sunand Subramaniam, Senior Research Associate at Choice Broking, said, “For the month ahead, we are expecting LME and MCX Nickel futures to witness bullish trend with reports of higher demand from the battery sector in Germany and Indonesia. Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of nickel ore, a key component of EV batteries, wants to build an integrated EV industry that will eventually include building the electric vehicle.”
The Chinese Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing PMI both have shown recovery on a monthly basis; but then, the possibility of the second wave of COVID-19 and recent lockdown in Europe once again is likely to cap the extreme demand in the manufacturing sector, he said.
In the futures market, nickel for December delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 1,233.80 and a low of Rs 1,224.10 per kg on the MCX. So far in the current series, the base metal has touched a low of Rs 1,138 and a high of Rs 1,236.70.
Nickel delivery for December contract gained Rs 0.20, or 0.02 percent, to Rs 1,233.10 per kg at 19:31 hours with a business turnover of 2,171 lots. The same for January contract was up Rs 0.60, or 0.05 percent, to Rs 1,233.30 per kg with a turnover of 17 lots.
The value of the December and January contracts traded so far is Rs 569.07 crore and Rs 3.13 crore, respectively.
Subramaniam advised its clients to initiate a long position in MCX Nickel December future at CMP Rs 1,225 or a fall in the prices till Rs 1,220 can be used as a buying opportunity for the upside target of Rs 1,270. However, the bullish view can be negated if MCX Nickel December closes below the support of Rs 1,197 levels.
At 1406 (GMT), the base metal price was marginally down 0.08 percent quoting at $16,410 per tonne in London.
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