The dollar sank as U.S. authorities stepped in to cap the fallout from the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which led investors to speculate that the Federal Reserve would now be reluctant to rock the boat by hiking interest rates by a super-sized 50 basis points this month. A weaker dollar made greenback-priced metals cheaper to holders of other currencies. In China, signs of improving copper demand have emerged. SHFE copper inventories declined for the second straight week to hit their lowest since Jan. 20 by the end of last week, while the premium for domestic copper climbed to 95 yuan a tonne on Friday, the highest since Jan. 16. "The market consumption has picked up significantly ... and the activity of spot transactions is acceptable, which can also be verified by the gradual increase in daily shipments from Shanghai warehouses," Huatai Futures analysts said in a report. "The orders of downstream companies have begun to increase." The most-traded April copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.2% to 69,270 yuan ($10,038.69) a tonne, rebounding from 68,540 yuan a tonne, its lowest since Feb. 28 hit earlier in the session, on risk-off sentiment amid the SVB collapse. LME aluminium rose 0.8% to $2,332 a tonne, zinc was flat at $2,937 a tonne, lead was up 0.2% at $2,080.50 a tonne and tin climbed 1.4% to $23,225 a tonne. SHFE nickel shed 2.7% to 178,300 yuan a tonne, while aluminium rose 0.4% to 18,435 yuan a tonne. SHFE zinc declined 0.5% to 22,985 yuan a tonne, tin lost 0.5% to 188,880 yuan a tonne and lead was down 0.1% at 15,150 yuan a tonne. For the top stories in metals and other news, click or ($1 = 6.9003 yuan) (Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Savio D'Souza and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
mai.nguyen.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))LME price overview COMEX copper futures All metals news All commodities news Foreign exchange rates SPEED GUIDES ))
