Most of the base metals except for Lead rose on LME as participants took their cue from rising equity markets.

Nickel gained strength on LME and MCX on the back of news of a mine closure by BHP Billiton. Nickel rose by Rs. 2 and settled at 643.6 on MCX.

Copper also saw a decent rise in its prices following the inventory drop at LME and fresh imports by China.

China's refined copper production rose to 338,300 tonnes in April from March's 319,400 tonnes, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

China, the world's top maker of aluminium, lead and zinc, produced 876,300 tonnes of primary aluminum in April, down from 902,300 tonnes in the previous month. Lead production dropped to 302,300 tonnes in April versus 335,200 tonnes in March. Zinc was 334,900 tonnes versus 344,200 tonnes. Nickel output also dropped to 14,092 tonnes in April after falling 6 percent in March.

Copper inventories at LME warehouses continued to drop. Stocks fell 6,150 tonnes to 379,025 tonnes on Tuesday, while cancelled warrants -- material booked for delivery
-- rose 6 percent to 74,500 tonnes, nearly 20 percent of the total stockpile.

China's April copper imports hit a fresh record high, prompting worries over an oversupply, but a massive surge in investment indicates Beijing's stimulus plan is helping stoking the economy.

Global miner BHP Billiton Ltd/Plc will stop operations at one of its nickel mines in Western Australia in response to falling prices for the metal, the company said on Tuesday. The closure of the Rocky's Reward open pit mine, will leave BHP with two operating underground mines in the Leinster region of Western Australia, where it also operates a concentrate processing plant.

Base Metals: China refined copper production was up by 5.9% in the month of April, we believe that copper prices may not run away from present levels in short term as lots of idle capacities are getting started in China and other parts of the world. We don’t remain very bullish on copper but Nickel looks strong due to news of BHP Billiton closing one of its Australian mine.

Copper: Copper opened- up higher yesterday, gave a high at 234, but closed lower. Thus, the sentiments are not very clear in copper. The ADX also is not giving any direction in the trend. However, copper has maintained the support of 226, thus one can hold long copper at dips with Sl of 226. Copper breaching the 226 level can trigger further downside till 218-220.

Nickel: Nickel is moving positive in contradiction to other base metals. Nickel prices are sustaining above 635-40 levels. Looking at ADX- the uptrend looks strong. Thus, We recommend buying at dips around 640-44 levels, with Sl of 632, targeting 668-670 in Nickel.