Base Metals Surge as Booming Factory Production Lures Investors

(Bloomberg) -- Base metals charged higher on Thursday after U.S. manufacturing data provided further evidence of a synchronized boom in factory output across the globe.

Nickel and zinc paced gains in London as a weaker dollar, rallying equity markets and surging oil prices also drew money into commodities.

Copper rallied as much as 1.7 percent to $7,265 a ton on the London Metal Exchange after top user China cut quotas on scrap imports, potentially leaving buyers more reliant on overseas mine output. Wage talks in top producers such as Chile threaten to curb such supply.

“Manufacturing data is very supportive, the dollar is weak, and money is starting to come back,” Xiao Fu, head of global commodities strategy at BOCI Global Commodities UK Ltd., said by phone from London. “The money needs to go somewhere, and from a valuation point of view equity markets are already looking stretched.”

Gains in metals and oil helped to lift the Bloomberg Commodity Index to the highest in almost 11 months, before erasing Thursday's gains.

Other metal prices:

• Nickel +1.9% to $12,650/ton, biggest gain among six main metals traded in London
• Zinc, lead and aluminum also advanced, while tin fell

--With assistance from Luzi Ann Javier

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Burton in London at mburton51@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Steven Frank, Joe Richter

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