Copper up 4.6% on rising Chinese imports

Print this page Posted on : 12-23-2008 by recycleinme.com

London, Dec. 22

Copper jumped more than 4 per cent in a thin market on Monday, buoyed by a weaker dollar and rising Chinese imports, before trimming gains on bigger inventories.

Copper for three month delivery on the London Metal Exchange pared gains to trade at $2,960 a tonne in the rings, from a session high at $3,065. It closed at $2,930 on Friday.

China imported 141,728 tonnes of refined copper last month, 37.7 per cent more than in November 2007, official customs figures showed. "China's imports numbers were encouraging and the dollar has weakened {ndash} that's probably the two main factors," Mr David Thurtell, a strategist at Citigroup saidHighlighting the uncertain nature of the rise in industrial metal prices, LME copper stocks climbed 3,200 tonnes to 327,500 tonnes {ndash} the highest since February 2004.

Aluminium hit $1,532 a tonne, and traded up $1 at $1,517 in LME rings. Base metals unaffected

Base metals were little-affected by China's central bank decision to cut banks' benchmark lending and deposit rates by 0.27 percentage point {ndash} the fifth cut since mid-September.

Lead jumped 7.5 per cent to $915 a tonne from $851 on Friday but traded at $880 in rings. Nickel was at $10,100 a tonne, down from $10,300, tin was at $10,305 from $10,100, and zinc was last bid at $1,160 unchanged from Friday.

Source : Business Line