Reuters reported that London nickel pushed to its strongest in almost 15 months while copper prices edged up to their highest in more than seven weeks, both on tight supply concerns. Nickel prices have soared a dizzying 35% this year on worries about availability after a ban on Indonesian ore exports in January was compounded by the potential for sanctions on Russia, a top producer of refined nickel. And Chinese traders who stocked up on ore ahead of Indonesia's ban are waiting for higher prices to sell, leaving some stainless steelmakers scrambling for raw materials supply. Mr Mark Keenan analyst at Societe Generale in Singapore said that "It's a confluence of a wide range of geopolitical events, and some interesting supply and demand dynamics playing out of China winning the war against the technical view point that (nickel) is quite obviously overbought. Nickel) is certainly the most favourite of the base metals at the minute." Copper has found support from tight credit in top consumer China, with local consumers low on stocks but unable to finance new purchases due to a government crackdown on lending. A network of loan guarantees set up to improve companies' access to credit in one of China's richest districts is creating new risks of default as some debts sour, another sign of how private firms are bearing the brunt of an economic slowdown. Three month copper on the London Metal Exchange climbed to USD 6,798 a tonne, its highest since March 7, before trading at USD 6,792 per tonne by 0249 GMT. Prices have rebounded by more than 2% this month but are still down by nearly 8% this year.

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