Shanghai copper hit a record high on Tuesday, while prices in London hovered near their highest in 14 months, backed by positive factory data, and hopes of rate cuts and lower output.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) eased 0.2% to $9,397.50 per metric ton by 0252 GMT, while the most-traded May copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) climbed 1% to 76,050 yuan ($10,512.71) a ton.
Earlier in the session, SHFE copper hit as much as 76,700 yuan, the highest on record, tracking overnight gains in London where the copper contract climbed to the highest in 14 months in the previous session.
Funds have increased their appetite on metals, buoyed by better-than-expected manufacturing data in major economies including top consumer China as well as hope for rate cuts in the United States and Europe.
Copper is also supported by the prospect of output cuts in China, where smelters struggled with a tightness of raw material supply.
However, physical demand for copper remained laggard.
Copper hits 14-month high with support from momentum funds
Yangshan copper premium was last seen at $42.50 a ton, hovering around the lowest since August last year, indicating weaker demand to import copper into China.
The LME cash copper contract on Monday was traded at a $129.99 a ton discount to the three-month contract, the biggest discount since at least 1982, which also pointed to a weak physical demand.
LME aluminium shed 0.4% to $2,452 a ton, nickel dropped 1.1% to $17,650, zinc lost 0.8% to $2,643.50, lead fell 0.7% to $2,128.50 and tin declined 1.1% to $29,525.
SHFE aluminium edged up 0.3% at 20,195 yuan a ton, nickel increased 0.3% to 136,380 yuan, zinc climbed 0.7% to 21,850 yuan, tin rose 1.6% to 237,520 yuan, while lead fell 0.3% to 16,530 yuan.
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