London copper rises on demand hopes; China's policy woes hit Shanghai prices
- Peru's copper output could hit a record 2.5 million tonnes this year, its mining minister said.
HANOI: Copper futures advanced in London on Wednesday buoyed by hopes of rising demand, but prices in Shanghai fell on fears of policy tightening by top consumer China.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange advanced 0.9% to $8,859.50 a tonne by 0431 GMT, while the most-traded April copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 1.4% to 65,720 yuan ($10,093.84) a tonne.
Copper is pegged by analysts to benefit from a global economic recovery and rising demand from green investments, but possible policy tightening in China could put a lid on a sustained economic recovery and inflows into financial markets.
"Metals are hostage to large moves in the macro space, with a rotation going on into cyclical assets, but ...fears of asset bubbles have slammed Chinese equity markets hard," said commodities broker Anna Stablum of Marex Spectron, adding, upcoming sessions are likely to be volatile.
"We might start to see some downstream copper users be more willing to come in and purchase metal after the latest price drop, but most likely we will need to see prices stabilise first. The rapid increase we saw in February did deter physical users from buying."
The head of China's base metals body warned of the risk of speculators driving prices away from fundamentals, adding that sharp fluctuations would "do more harm than good".
FUNDAMENTALS
Peru's copper output could hit a record 2.5 million tonnes this year, its mining minister said.
Shanghai Dalu Futures cut its long position on the May Shanghai copper contract on Tuesday by almost 25%.
LME zinc fell 0.2% to $2,771.50 a tonne, ShFE nickel dropped 1.4% to 120,620 yuan a tonne and ShFE lead declined 1.6% to 14,665 yuan a tonne.
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