Copper rises on Greece relief

SINGAPORE: London copper futures rose 1 percent on Tuesday after debt-laden Greece struck a deal for a second bailout package to avert a default next month, fuelling appetite for riskier assets.

The deal involves 130 billion euros in new financing for Greece and for Athens to work to cut its debt to 121 percent of GDP by 2020, two EU officials said. The euro reversed early losses on the news to trade higher against the dollar while Asian stocks cut losses.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose $79.25 to $8,314.75 a tonne by 0344 GMT, extending Monday's modest gains.

The Greece deal came a day after China made its first bank reserve requirement ratio (RRR) cut this year, joining global counterparts in easing credit conditions to spur its economy, which helped copper break a six-day losing streak.

But with Greece needing far more work to fix its downtrodden economy and other euro zone countries also beset by austerity measures, the positive impact of the deal on markets could soon wear off.

"It's a relief for markets, broadly speaking, but it doesn't mean that this is the end of the line," said Thomas Lam, economist at DMG & Partners Securities.

"It's a difficult process, but it's inching in the right direction.  The most-traded May copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained 0.8 percent to 59,830 yuan a tonne.

With the Greece burden out of the way, at least for the meantime, investor focus will likely turn to Chinese demand.

Demand from the world's biggest copper consumer has been slack, with copper stocks in Shanghai warehouses at their highest in nearly a decade last week.

Bonnie Liu, commodity analyst at Macquarie Securities in Shanghai, said she sees a seasonal pickup in Chinese demand possibly in April, but only expects a modest increase.

"Except for some seasonal factors it doesn't seem to me that demand is there yet so prices will likely range trade for a while."

"If the price goes below $8,000 that might be attractive for the Chinese to come back to the market," said Liu.