Bareksa.com - London nickel hovered close to 15-month highs on Wednesday as worries about supply from Indonesia and Russia fuelled momentum that has found further heat from investor and consumer buying.

Fundamentals

Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange climbed 0.4 percent to 18,625 a tonne by 0130 GMT having earlier reached 18,700 a tonne, within a whisker of its April 28 peak of $18,715, which was the loftiest since February 2013.

Nickel prices have rallied by a third this year after top ore exporter Indonesia slapped a ban on overseas shipments in January and on worries that shipments from top producer Norilsk Nickel could be hit by sanctions over Russia's actions in Ukraine.

LME copper edged down 0.1 percent to $6,711.25 a tonne from the previous session when it finished little changed.

The most-traded August copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange edged up 0.2 percent to 47,240 yuan ($7,600) a tonne.

Euro zone business activity picked up at its fastest pace in almost three years at the start of the second quarter, surveys found, while retail sales showed a surprise pick up in March.

China's central bank said on Tuesday it would keep monetary policy steady with timely fine-tuning to help stabilise economic growth, while introducing greater yuan flexiblity.

Group Inc's new U.S. aluminum futures contract debuted on Tuesday with just 57 lots of metal changing hands as the Chicago-based exchange launched its audacious bid to challenge the London Metal Exchange's $51 billion market.For the top stories in metals and other news.

Markets news

<span 1.6em;"="">Asian shares dipped and the safe-haven yen hovered just above a multi-month high against the dollar in early trade on Wednesday as the heightened possibility of Ukraine slipping into civil war dampened risk sentiment. (Source : Reuters)