LONDON: Copper edged up on Thursday, buoyed by a softer dollar and strong Chinese imports data, fuelled by the country's thirst for commodities.
China's November imports expanded 6.7 percent on-year, confounding expectations for a drop of 1.3 percent and the strongest gain since September 2014.
China's imports of copper, used in plumbing and wiring, surged 31 percent in November.
It also imported 91.98 million tonnes of iron ore, the third highest monthly tally on record. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.9 percent to $5,835.50 a tonne at 1109 GMT, reversing losses from the previous session.
Inventories on the LME showed a further 7,550-tonne fall in on-warrant copper stocks, the 15th consecutive session of declines. On warrant inventories are not earmarked for delivery, hence available to investors. "Fundamentals are constructive for base metals and there is still a more than 5 percent growth in China, which is very strong and is still translating into a strong commodity spend," ETF Securities head of commodity research Nitesh Shah said. However, the most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped 1.5 percent to 47,210 yuan ($6,862) a tonne, with traders attributing the modest retreat to profit-taking and a switch to equities.
The dollar was down 0.3 percent against a basket of six major currencies, mostly due to a stronger euro ahead of a
European Central Bank meeting widely expected to extend its programme of quantitative easing.
A lower dollar makes dollar-denominated LME metals cheaper to buy for holders of other currencies.
But a slide in oil prices on bearish US petroleum inventory data and doubts that production cuts promised by OPEC and Russia would end a global supply overhang kept a lid on commodities trading across metals.
Copper prices surged 20 percent last month. Momentum was driven by hopes that US President-elect Donald Trump would spend more on infrastructure and that Chinese economic activity and speculative spending would pick up.
Further data from China in the coming weeks is expected to show the economy growing at a steady pace in November, according to a Reuters poll.
Three-month LME zinc rose 0.9 percent to $2,765.50 a tonne, while the most-traded contract for the metal on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was 1.4 percent weaker at 22,850 yuan a tonne.
Zinc is the best-performing LME metal this year, having surged almost 72 percent. Aluminium rose 1 percent to $1,724 a tonne.
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