* LME/ShFE arb: http://bit.ly/2wZSAEz
* GRAPHIC-2018 asset returns: http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl (Releads, adds comment, updates with official prices)
LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) - Lead fell on Friday as some buyers cashed in on a recent rally but it was still on track for its biggest weekly rise since January 2017 as investors positioned for a market in deficit.
Despite Friday's move lower, the battery metal is still up nearly 6 percent so far this week, clawing back the bulk of its losses for the year after this week's drop in available stocks.
"The market is quite tight and we've had a fall in stocks this year, which is supporting prices," Capital Economics analyst Caroline Bain said, though she added that the metal was likely to struggle to extend gains in the longer run.
"The underlying fundamentals or the medium term outlook for demand we think is quite poor, because of the growth in alternative, greener batteries," she said. "But there is tightness in the market that will support prices at least for the time being."
* LEAD PRICES: Three-month lead on the London Metal Exchange was down 1 percent at $2,470 a tonne in official trading, having hit its highest since late February on Thursday at $2,509 a tonne.
* LEAD INVENTORIES: On-warrant lead stocks in LME-registered warehouses - those not already earmarked for delivery - are down 20,325 tonnes or 22 percent this week, although data showed on Friday they had risen 1,000 tonnes from the previous day's low.
* SHANGHAI LEAD: Lead inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 18 percent from a week ago to 12,676 tonnes, the exchange said on Friday.
* ALUMINIUM PRICES: LME aluminium was up 0.2 percent at $2,285 a tonne in official rings. Prices hit a seven-year peak last month after the United States imposed sanctions on Russian aluminium producer Rusal.
"Ultimately massive uncertainty remains in the aluminium market," Marex Spectron analyst Alastair Munro said.
* RUSAL BOARD: Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska stepped down as a director of Rusal as part of a series of steps he hopes will persuade the U.S. government to rescind the sanctions that have crippled his businesses.
* COPPER: LME copper was up 0.3 percent at $6,903 a tonne as traders weighed the potential closure of a major smelter in India.
* COPPER: India's Tamil Nadu state said on Thursday that it was seeking the closure of a copper smelter run by Vedanta Resources after 13 people died in protests demanding the closure of the plant on environmental grounds.
* OTHER METALS: Tin was 0.1 percent lower at $20,400 a tonne in official trading. Zinc and nickel were untraded in official rings but were last bid up 0.6 percent at $3,052 and down 0.2 percent at $14,870 respectively.
(Additional reporting by Tom Daly in Beijing Editing by Louise Heavens and Edmund Blair)