PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The market capitalisation of Western Australian listed companies, which made up the Deloitte Index, decreased by 1.6% during March, to close at A$151.2-billion.

The advisory firm reported this week that Australian markets suffered in March, driven by lackluster commodity prices owing to the release of lower-than-expected Chinese trade and retail sales data and worsening tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Deloitte Western Australia clients and markets partner Tim Richards said that the ongoing volatility in commodity prices continued to challenge not just the mining companies, but also the mining services companies that support them.

“The long-term outlook remains positive for the Western Australia economy, but we are still in for a volatile period over the next nine months.”

Most of the commodity prices surveyed fell during March, led by significant decreases in the price of copper and zinc, which fell 6.1% and 6.7% respectively.

Copper’s poor performance was fuelled by poor Chinese macroeconomic data released during the month, which included news of China’s first domestic corporate bond default and lower-than-expected trade figures, Richards said.

Actual Chinese exports fell by 18.1% during February, compared to a forecast increase of 7.5%.

Meanwhile, zinc prices fell 6.7% in March on the back of lower Chinese demand for imported zinc, with domestic supply currently satisfying China’s demand for the metal.

Safe haven metals, gold and silver, declined by 2.7% and 6.1%, respectively, as a result of positive US consumer confidence data and the announcement of the increase of benchmark interest rates by the US Federal Reserve after the ending of bond purchases.

Nickel prices achieved their highest price in 2014, rising by 8% in March owing to export supply restrictions from the world’s biggest producer, Indonesia, whose government has banned exports of the ore. Concerns over Crimea-related sanctions of Russia have also come into play, with concerns they could disrupt nickel exports going forward.

Deloitte reported that international equity market performance was lackluster in March, with losses posted by most major global indices surveyed. They were led by the FTSE 100, which posted the biggest fall, declining 3.1%, followed by the All Ordinaries and Nikkei with a decrease of 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.

The weak performances across the board were mainly driven by the prospect of economic stimulus cutbacks in the US, growing concern that China’s yearly gross domestic product growth target of 7.5% might not be achievable, and continued political and military tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

The US S&P 500 posted a modest gain of 0.7% during the month, despite the US Federal Reserve announcing it was cutting its stimulus programme and the possible raising of benchmark interest rates. These impacts were offset by economic optimism fuelled by the recovery of US manufacturing data, the country emerging from a harsh winter and ongoing improvement in labour market conditions.