Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.6 percent to $9,438.50 a tonne by 0702 GMT, but was still 1.7 percent down from the start of the year and 7 percent off the record high of $10,190 struck in February.

The most-active copper futures contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.8 percent to 70,700 yuan.

Uncertainty over Middle East tensions, Japan's nuclear disaster, limited Chinese demand, and monetary policies across the world's central banks will keep many players sidelined for the last day of the quarter.

"The mood is cautious given the data and Chinese holidays ahead. Our economists believe Beijing will start to shift from reserve ratios to interest rate policy to cool things down," said Natalie Robertson, analyst at ANZ in Melbourne.

She said ANZ expected two interest rate rises of 25 basis points each in the second quarter and for the yuan to continue to appreciate by an annual rate of around 6 percent.

"The market is very uncertain. There are no obvious money flows as investors don't have a clear idea of what to do with their money."

Chinese markets are closed on Monday and Tuesday next week for Tomb Sweeping Day.

Attention is on Friday's US non-farm payrolls report. Investors have geared up for a robust number, after a report by ADP showed US private employers added 201,000 jobs in March.

But if the data disappoint, the second quarter could start with a thud.

"The market has written off this quarter as a draw. There is not much to do other than watch the clock tick down and hope nothing else happens," said a Singapore-based trader.

"I don't expect the new month to start much differently. The jobs report casts a huge shadow and while we are under that, few investors will want to take a big punt."

Japan's copper production will likely tumble in the financial year starting on Friday as two out of three big smelters have suspended part of their operations since the earthquake, while the third, Sumitomo Metal, is bracing for a long period of plant maintenance.

President Nobu Kemori of Sumitomo Metal Mining , Japan's second-biggest copper smelter, said the company's copper output in the year beginning on April 1 could fall 10 percent to around 360,000 tonnes due to plant maintenance at its Toyo smelter in western Japan.

But the market took the news in its stride and given copper smelters and refiners are seen running at 80 percent capacity in 2011, according to Reuters Metal Production Database, there are plenty of other plants that could absorb the concentrate freed up by Japan.

LME aluminium rose $13 to $2,642 a tonne, but the lightweight metal is on course for a rise of 7 percent this quarter, underpinned by higher energy costs which lifted prices to a 2-1/2-year high of $2,656 earlier this week.

LME zinc rose $5 to $2,343 a tonne.

Dowa Mining Holdings Co said it plans to resume operations of its 200,000 tonnes-a-year Akita zinc smelter in northeastern Japan in early April.

The Akita plant is Japan's biggest zinc smelter, accounting for nearly 30 percent of Japan's total production. Nearly 65 percent of Japan's production capacity of zinc has been suspended since the March 11 earthquake.