Nickel futures down 0.58% to Rs 1,072.8 per kg on high inventory

Nickel prices edged lower to Rs 1,072.80 per kg on August 13 as participants increased their short positions.

Prices have been under pressure from higher stocks at the accredited warehouses of London Metal Exchange (LME) and Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE).

The base metal lacks strong fundamentals to push prices further up in the immediate term.

In the futures market, nickel for August delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 1,083.80 and a low of Rs 1,071.10 per kg on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX). So far in the current series, the base metal has touched a low of Rs 963.60 and a high of Rs 1,117.

Nickel for August delivery slipped Rs 4.70, or 0.58 percent, to Rs 1,072.8 per kg at 20:09 hours on a business turnover of 2,036 lots. The same for September delivery eased Rs 5, or 0.46 percent, to Rs 1,080 per kg on a turnover of 178 lots.

The value of the August and September contracts traded so far is Rs 1,778.19 crore and Rs 18.08 crore, respectively.

Intraday bias for nickel looks positive as long as Rs 1,072-1,060 is held as support whereas resistance is seen at Rs 1,092-1,100 levels, according to Motilal Oswal.

At 1442 (GMT), the base metal futures was down 0.86 percent at $14,110 per tonne in London.