Copper slips as Chile supply worries fade

Print this page Posted on : 03-05-2010 by recycleinme.com

London, March 4 Copper fell almost 2 per cent on Thursday, as analysts said supply worries after the earthquake in top producer Chile had been overdone, while sovereign debt concerns boosted the dollar.

By 1103 GMT, copper for three- month delivery on the London Metal Exchange fell to $ 7,517.50 a tonne from $ 7,580 at the close on Wednesday and compared with a session low at $ 7,445.

Copper rose as high as $ 7,634 on Wednesday, its loftiest since Jan. 11, helped by a weaker dollar. A combination of Chinese buying, improving macro data, a weak dollar and fund buying, all helped copper prices soar 140 per cent last year.

They have been looking quite strong,” said Mr William Adams, an analyst at BaseMetals. com on industrial metal prices in recent sessions. “ The key is whether the strength we’ve seen this week, is on the back of fund allocation money coming in, which is often the case at the beginning of the month.

If it’s just the case of that, once the money has been allocated, we might go through a bit of a lean patch and prices are likely to pull back. Traders continue to keep a watchful eye on stock movements, for clues on demand outside China. The latest data showed stocks fell 6,350 tonnes to total 544,225 tonnes — remaining near six- year highs.

ALUMINIUM GAINS

Aluminium traded at $ 2,230 versus $ 2,210. LME stocks for the metal, used in transport and packaging, slipped 5,975 tonnes to 4.5 million tonnes.

Nickel traded at $ 23,000 from $ 22,845 while battery material lead was at $ 2,230 from $ 2,238.50. Zinc traded at $ 2,305 a tonne from $ 2,320 and tin was at $ 17,735 from $ 17,350.

Source : Business Line