Base metals witnessed correction during yesterday session where most of them fell by 3-4%. Weak housing numbers coupled with rising jobless claims raised concerns about demand for non ferrous metals.

Japan's output of rolled copper products fell by a record 60 percent from a year earlier in March, data showed on Friday, illustrating the sharp collapse in industrial demand from the world's fourth-biggest consumer. Japan's output of rolled copper products fell to 32,338 tonnes in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, down 60.2 percent from a year earlier, preliminary industry data from the Japan Copper and Brass Association showed.

Base metals witnessed range bound trading session and ended the day with negative bias, Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell $150 to $4,390 per tone and metals like Zinc and Nickel also went down sharply.

Chinese buying for stockpiling purposes had helped push copper prices higher this year touching six-month peaks last week but Beijing's State Reserves Bureau may be done buying for now, having breached its target volume and given the current price levels. The global copper market was in a surplus of

Base metals witnessed sharp gap down opening on MCX as fall in equities market on Monday triggered selling in non ferrous metals, later during the evening session speech by U. S. Treasury Secretary reduced anxiety amongst traders.

Risk aversion and stronger dollar have victimized base metals complex. We have seen sharp correction in copper, nickel, zinc and lead. Despite of drawdown in inventories, copper prices plummeted on LME.

Industrial metals slid on Monday with copper tumbling about 5 percent as skidding equities underlined concern about the economy and demand, while a stronger dollar exerted downward pressure. Copper inventories in LME warehouses fell by 7,300 tonnes to 462,325 tonnes, having dropped nearly 80,000 tonnes since mid-February. Cancelled warrants stocks earmarked for delivery rose to 68,325 tonnes from 64,400 tonnes on Friday.

In its endeavor to overcome volatility in potato futures trade, National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) and Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) of India have imposed a 10 percent additional margin on sale positions and 15 percent margin on buy positions.

While the MCX margin order takes effect from April 18; an unnamed official said that the NCDEX margins "will be effective from April 21."

Base metals extended their gains on LME and Comex due to drop in inventories, increased optimism in financial markets and expectation of further Chinese buying. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell to $4731 per tone down by $72 after closing up $74 on Friday.