Metals, oil prices up

Prices on base and precious metals were up on Tuesday after Monday’s falling prices. Three-month copper, for example, was up 3 percent on the day, by $167 to $4,807 per tonne in late afternoon trade on the London Metal Exchange after a 4 percent drop on Monday. Three-month aluminium was up $50 to $2,410 per tonne and recovered around two-thirds of its Monday decline. Zinc, meanwhile, was up over 5 percent to $2,359 per tonne, only $60 dollars below its record high that was reached four weeks ago.

Gold prices rose by $6 to $560.30/$561.20 per troy ounce. The gain was after commodities consultant CPM group said that investment demand as well as fabrication demand for gold will probably decline in 2006, but that prices would average $502.34 this year, above the 2005 average of $446.42, and that gold mine output would go up 6.1 percent to 66.8 million troy ounces.

Meanwhile, crude oil prices were up. In late afternoon trade in London, April contract Brent crude on the International Petroleum Exchange had gone up 53 cents to $61.52 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate crude for April deliver added 25 cents in early afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to $61.25 per barrel.

In other commodities, refined sugar was up by over 3 percent in London, to $451.1 per tonne on a prediction by the International Sugar Organization that there will be a global sugar deficit of 2.2 million tonnes in the year to September 2006. This is above its November estimate of a 1.0 million tonne deficit but below the 3.7 million tonne deficit estimated for 2004/2005.

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