New York: Comex aluminum futures ended slightly softer Tuesday on moderate volumes with most action confined to early dealings with little interest toward the close. Most-active September settled off 0.01 cent at 64.75 cents a lb after trading 65.40-65.85 cents. Front-month August eased 0.01 cent to close at 64.55 cents. "We're hoping something will happen eventually. The open interest when I last checked a couple days back is a little over 1000 now, I think it's up to like 1200 or so," commented a trader."So we're keeping our fingers crossed that it takes off. That would be good for all of us down here," he added. Estimated volumes reached 263 lots early in the day and held steady at the close, down from 310 lots Monday. Last week, estimated volumes drifted from 475 lots on Monday, down to 150 lots on Tuesday before recovering. Final estimated volumes Friday totalled 610 lots, compared with 265 lots Thursday and 390 lots Wednesday. Open interest for September was up 57 lots to 958 while it remained flatin August to 253 lots. Inventories held in COMEX warehouses were up 607 pieces to 109,600 pieces in Monday's report. These include the total number of pieces of T-Bar, sow, slab and bundles of standard ingot stored at the facility which is either primary or secondary aluminum and may not meet the precise standards to be delivered against the futures contract.
The LME three-months aluminum price gave back earlier gains to close down $10 at $1,348 a tonne.
Dealers said volumes were thin while the market will continue to attempt a close above $1,360. LME stocks were down 1,125 tonnes at 760,250 tonnes Tuesday.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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