SINGAPORE: London copper slid for a second session on Wednesday, easing after hitting its highest in over a year last week, with investors awaiting details of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's plans to boost infrastructure spending.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped 0.2 percent to $5,516 a tonne by 0711 GMT, after dropping more than 1 percent earlier in the session to $5,452 a tonne on a firmer dollar.
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed 0.8 percent lower at 44,580 yuan a tonne.
London copper futures climbed to their highest since June 2015 at $6,025.50 a tonne on Friday, posting the biggest weekly gains last week since 2011 with an 11.2-percent rise, in a rally that was buoyed by Trump's promises of infrastructure spending.
"There is some consolidation going on as investors are waiting for concrete plans from Trump on infrastructure spending," said Argonaut Securities analyst Helen Lau.
"There is evidence to show improvement in China's demand, but the market is looking for more evidence before making further gains."
There has been support for copper in the past few weeks stemming from expectations of improved demand in top consumer China.
The chief executive of China trading house Maike Metals said on Wednesday that copper demand would likely improve in 2017 after China stepped up its spending on infrastructure, as well as on hopes of increased appetite from U.S.-based investors.
The total net long position of funds trading copper on the LME rose 18 percent to 63,870 lots last Friday from the previous week, the LME's Commitments of Traders Report (COTR) showed on Tuesday.
Hedge funds and money managers raised their net long positions in COMEX copper to the highest on record at 59,263 lots in the week to Nov. 8, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Monday.
Shanghai aluminium finished almost 4 percent lower at 13,600 yuan a tonne, while LME aluminium lost 1.2 percent to $1,715 a tonne.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.