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(Updates with closing prices)
By Eric Onstad
LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - Aluminium touched a three-monthpeak on Tuesday after major producer Norsk Hydro
Other industrial metals also gained ground on optimism abouteasy monetary policy ahead of a U.S. central bank meeting and onhopes for further stimulus in top metals consumer China.
Aluminium prices spiked after Hydro said the IT systems formost of its activities had been affected.
"The trigger was the news from Hydro about their productionproblems after the cyber attack, and since aluminium is themetal with the biggest short position, there was probably shortcovering taking place," said Gianclaudio Torlizzi, partner atconsultancy T-Commodity in Milan.
Benchmark aluminium
* ALUMINIUM INVENTORIES: Helping to cap gains in aluminiumwas a 17 percent jump in on-warrant LME inventories
* FED MEETING: Base metals joined rising world shares asrisk appetite increased, with investors betting on a dovishstatement from the U.S. central bank on Wednesday.
Torlizzi, however, was cautious. "If you stick to theeconomic data, there shouldn't be so many reasons to bebullish," he said. "The market is running the risk of beingdisappointed tomorrow, which could translate into downsidepressures."
* COPPER: Three-month copper
* TECHNICALS: LME copper may test resistance at $6,525 pertonne this week, a break above which could lead to a gain intothe range of $6,594-$6,662, according to Reuters technicalanalyst Wang Tao.
* NICKEL: A rise in Chinese steel and iron ore pricessupported nickel, mainly used to make stainless steel. LME
* PHILIPPINE NICKEL: Nickel Asia Corp
* PRICES: Zinc
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen in Singapore; Editing byJan Harvey) ((eric.onstad@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 7093; Twitter
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