Base metals traded flat to higher on the LME on Wednesday morning on an uptick in risk appetite, with investors betting on the successful passage of austerity measures in a Greek vote later today. Greek ministers are expected to vote in favour of crucial austerity plans this afternoon at around 13:00 GMT, which will open the door to win more EU/IMF funds in July. The euro edged up on anticipation of a ‘yes’ vote, climbing as high as 1.4416 against the dollar. “Today all eyes will be on the Greek vote - given the implications of not passing it, it’s likely that it will be passed but that is unlikely to be the end of the matter because the austerity packages then has to be implemented,” FastMarkets analyst William Adams said. “If passed, it may provide some short-term gain but will add to the long-term pain and in the end is likely to have just bought more time,” he added The latest Japanese industrial production data gave traders another reason to be bullish - factory output increased 5.7 percent in May, the biggest gain in more than 50 years, after carmakers restored operations at plants following the catastrophic earthquake on March 11. Indeed, some analysts believe the resiliency base metals have shown over the past month or so is solid evidence that prices are heading higher in the near term. “A market that will not go down on bearish news and especially a market that will not go down on a bearish chart formation coupled with bearish news is not bearish,” Dennis Gartman, author of the Gartman Letter, said. “Copper should have plunged,” he added. “It had the appearance of being balanced on a precarious edge, from which it appeared ready to topple. But it has refused to do so, and has instead gone higher, again to our chagrin.” Copper traded at $9,135, up from Tuesday’s close at $9,072.50 and building on yesterday’s gain of $102.50. Stocks fell 1,350 tonnes to 467,025 and cancelled warrants declined 7.6 percent to 24,575 tonnes. Aluminium rose $10 to $2,530 per tonne after inventories fell for the 25th day in a row, down 13,300 tonnes to 4,509,950 tonnes - marking the ninth day in a row of a 10,000-tonne plus decline, with withdrawals again made from a wide spread of locations. Nickel rose $250 to $22,890 after inventories fell 840 tonnes to 107,796 tonnes - the lowest since August 12, 2009. “We continue to favour copper, aluminium and to a lesser extent nickel where physical demand indications have continued to firm despite the market focusing on economic growth concerns,” Credit Suisse said. Zinc was indicated at $2,278 per tonne, flat from $2,275-2,280 on Tuesday. Its inventory report was positive - stocks fell 1,650 tonnes to 864,400 tonnes, while cancelled warrants rose 1,350 tonnes to 49,525 tonnes. Lead was flat from Tuesday at $2,585 but Tin gained $255 to $25,600. Steel billet was indicated at $550/563, cobalt at $34,000/36,950 and molybdenum at $32,400/37,500.

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