26th Nov 2015 11:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - Chinese regulators are considering a request from a metal industry group to probe short-selling in domestic metal contracts amid recent price declines, Bloomberg reported citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Regulators have begun to collect some records of trading activity following a request from the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because they aren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-26/china-said-to-consider-probe-of-short-selling-in-domestic-metals
This is causing a rally in copper prices, which is driving UK-listed mining stocks higher.
Nevertheless, CMC Markets analyst Jasper Lawler said "short-selling is a symptom, not the cause of weakness in metals prices so the bounce in both copper and mining companies could be short-lived".
All FTSE 350 Mining Sector Index constituents were up except for Vedanta Resources, down 0.2%, and BHP Billiton, down 2.1% at 836.04 pence, with the latter being downgraded to Underweight from Neutral by JPMorgan Cazenove, while Societe Generale cut the miner's price target to 915p from 1,050p, keeping a Hold stance.
Glencore was leading the FTSE 100, up 4.2%, Antofagasta was up 2.4% and Fresnillo was rising 2.1%.
By Daniel Ruiz; [email protected]
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BHP Billiton PLCVedanta ResourcesFresnilloGlencore