Copper nears $13,000 in record post-Christmas catch-up trade

Copper set a record on Monday, as last week’s sharp rally in Shanghai spilled into a Christmas holiday-curtailed global market.

The benchmark three month copper on the London Metal Exchange soared 5.86% to $12,875 per metric ton as of 0250 GMT, after setting a record of $12,960 a ton earlier in the session.

The most-active copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, meanwhile, breached the 100,000 yuan mark to surge 3.43% to 101,480 yuan ($14,474.19) a ton, after briefly touching an all-time high of 102,660 yuan.

The London benchmark copper contract is closing the gap with gains made in the Shanghai contract during the London exchange’s Christmas holiday closure. Shanghai copper gained 5.81% last week, while the London copper posted a weekly gain of 1.93%.

A group of China’s top smelters on Thursday decided not to set guidance for copper concentrate processing fees for the first quarter of next year amid low charges due to a supply shortage, while China on Friday said it would rein in its copper capacity growth in the next five-year plan, supporting gains in Shanghai copper.

The Monday rally also drew support from traders’ bets on two-more interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve as they await the Tuesday release of minutes from the Fed’s December meeting for clues on how policy makers aim to balance the risks of inflation and a weakening labour market.

All metals saw a year-end rally on Monday.

In the London market, aluminium rose 0.96%, zinc gained 1.33%, lead added 1.15%, nickel advanced 1.23% and tin climbed 2.01%.

Among other SHFE base metals, aluminium jumped 2.32%, zinc moved 1.34% higher, lead rose 1.24%, nickel gained 1.32% and tin advanced 1.94%.