Page 92 - MEX-Yearbook-2017

MEX Almanac

April 2017

Precious Metals spread narrowed slightly but still kept the arbitrage open for US crude
The price of precious metals saw mixed trend over the period of the exports. Money manager net long positions rose 30% from end of
month of April as the price of gold and palladium rose slightly and March until the middle of April, but dropped by one of largest weekly
price of silver and platinum declined. The gold price rallied by 1.39% falls on record in the last week of April. After trading mostly sideways
over the month after the U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed the for the month, May natural gas expired at $3.14, reaching a settled low
military strikes against the Syrian air base in response to a deadly attack of 3.04 on April 25 and a high of $3.33 on April 6. May heating oil lost
on the rebel-held area. Gold rose high as investors sought safe-haven nearly 0.6% on NYMEX.
assets to be protected from the loss caused by increased geopolitical
risks in North Korea, and Syria, uncertainty in the French election Brent Crude Open Close % Change
and unexpected U.S. non-farm payroll data. The decrease in the price Crude Oil 5361 5186 -3.26%
of silver was due to the lower results of the main producer, Minera Heating Oil 5070 4921 -2.94 %
Yanacocha S.R.L. whose operations in Cajamarca had been affected Natural Gas 41.64 39.75 -4.54%
by an exhaustion of the reserves in the current deposits in operation. 318.3 326.1 2.45%
The SDO (Sylvania Dump Operations), the low-cost Platinum Group
Metal had increased the production to a great extent this month that Agro
had decreased the price of platinum. Palladium prices strengthened, Cocoa was one of the worst-performing commodities in April, as the
hitting a two-year high due to generally improved fundamentals with market was moving into a year in which supply of cocoa is expected
solid uptake in the auto industry and strong speculative buying. to outstrip demand. Data from the Commodity Futures Trading
Commission showed that speculators in the cocoa market added to
Gold Open Close % Change their short positions for the second straight week. Hedge funds and
Silver 40247.5 40805 1.39% other money managers betting on lower prices for cocoa outweighed
Platinum 586.8 553.5 -5.67% bullish traders by 32,771 contracts as of April 18. Due to the export of
Palladium 30612.5 -0.52% low quality coffee, the demand for coffee plummeted in the month of
25671 30452.5 3.32% April. Raw sugar futures jumped the most in three months after India
26523 moved to allow some imports. The world’s second-largest producer
and top consumer was supposed to authorize inbound shipments of
Base Metals 500,000 metric tons of duty-free raw sugar, according to government
The price of copper sank as geopolitical worries from saber-rattling officials. Soybean and soybean oil prices remained almost steady and
over North Korea to a snap UK general election hurt the investor ended the month slightly lower. The stock of wheat in European Union
appetite for cyclical assets such as base metals. In addition, China, one sharply decreased to push the price of the grain up.
of the world’s biggest copper consumers, housing data was released.
That data indicated that it was declining and was likely to go much
lower. Likewise, copper fell on the news.

Copper Open Close % Change Cocoa Open Close % Change
585.1 575.8 -1.59% Coffee 208.6 183.2 -12.18%
Corn 307 294.4 -4.10%
Energy Cotton 14.07 14.4 2.35%
Crude oil futures recovered on the high conformity by OPEC and Soybean Oil 170.4 173.68 1.92%
non-OPEC with voluntary production adjustments, and expectations Soybean 70.4 69.9 -0.71%
for an extension to year-end. However, upward potential was seen as Sugar 35.33 35.14 -0.54%
limited by the resurgence in the oil output, particularly in the US. ICE Wheat 37.1 35.64 -3.94%
Brent increased 2.4% and NYMEX WTI rose 2.9%. The Brent-WTI 15.5 15.85 2.26%

The figures above are the percentage change in the prices of corresponding commodity over the
corresponding month. % change is calculated as ((Close-Open)/Open*100)

91 | MEX NEPAL YEAR BOOK 2017