Base metals climbed and touched new highs in nearly two weeks on Thursday, driven by strong technical momentum and economic optimism that helped drive sharp gains in equities and metals, alike.

Zinc and Lead were clearly the front runners in this complex on Thursday, gaining around 2 percent each on MCX and LME respectively. Nickel rose by Rs. 11.8 or by 1.60 percent on MCX.

Global miner BHP Billiton is looking to sell its Yabulu and Ravensthorpe nickel operations in Australia as a package, the Australian Financial Review reported. The paper said BHP would complete a review of Yabulu next week, with Xstrata plc and Gladstone Pacific Nickel seen front-runners to buy the operation.

The report on Jobless Continued claims from the U. S. showed worse-than-expected figure of 6.738 million against the expectation of 6.687 million.

Stocks of copper in LME warehouses are at seven-month lows around 275,050 tonnes compared with levels around 500,000 tonnes earlier this year. Much of the difference has made its way to Chinese state reserves and consumer stockpiles.

Due to better than expected GDP report and expectation of a recovery is causing an upside in base metals. Nickel and Aluminium look good for the day. Trend for the day is sideways to up.