Copper and Crude

Copper on the MCX for its April end contract closed at Rs 409.0/kg with a change of 1.41% from its previous closing price of Rs 403.35/kg after registering a high of Rs 410.95/kg and a low of Rs 401.45/kg. Its open interest stood at 32246. For its June contract Copper closed at Rs 415.55/kg from its previous closing price of Rs 410.05/kg, it made a high of Rs 417.20/kg and a low of Rs. 408.20/kg with an open interest of 4759 lots. At the COMEX Copper closed at 335.50 USD/lb, marking an increase of 0.03% for it May13 contract.

The increase in Copper prices was a resultant of strong demand from China. China’s official PMI data for its non manufacturing sector was marked at 55.6 in March from 54.5 of February.  The increase in the figure was due to the buoyancy in the construction sector marking well for the modest recovery in the world’s second largest economy and the largest consumer of copper. Chinese GDP is expected to increase by year on year 8.1% in Q1, faster than its 13 year low rate of 7.8% in 2012. Meanwhile the consumer inflation for China is expected to drop down at 2.4% from its previous 3.2 percent.

Crude oil at the MCX closed at Rs 5094 from its previous closing price of Rs 5199 sliding by 1.71%.  Its open interest stood at 24049. Crude oil prices at the MYMEX dropped by 2.31% to trade at 92.27 barrel. The prices dropped on the wake of high jobless claims in the US, the latest official data revealed that a greater number of individuals claimed to be jobless in the last week than expected. The jobless claims increased by 28,000 to 385,000 contrary to the expectation of drop of 7,000 claims.

The crude inventories increased by 2.71 million barrels in the last week of March above the market expectation of 2.2 million barrels. The total crude inventories stood at 388.6 million barrels in the last week.

Crude prices are expected to be bearish. US inventories have climbed to a 22 year high and amidst economic concerns and high jobless data the prices of crude is set to be in the red. However the US nonfarm payroll data will be in focus to trade for the day.