LONDON: Copper hit a week high on Tuesday as risk appetite continued to strengthen following centrist Emmanuel Macron's victory in the first round of the French presidential election on Sunday, though gains were capped by worries over demand in China.
With opinion polls showing Macron as strong favourite to beat far-right, anti-European Union candidate Marine Le Pen in the final run-off, investors have pretty much priced out the risk of a Brexit-like political shock.
Global equities hit record highs on Tuesday, while safe-havens gold and the Japanese yen retreated. Also helping copper, the dollar languished near five-month lows versus the euro, making dollar-priced copper cheaper for non-US investors.
"Positive sentiment is impacting copper this morning, but we are still bearish, we don't buy into the shortage story. Also, the Chinese economy looks like its reached a cyclical peak ... look at the imports data published by customs," said Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke.
COPPER PRICES: Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was last bid up 0.5 percent in official midday rings to $5,686 a tonne, having earlier hit its highest in a week at $5,707.50 a tonne.
COPPER IMPORTS: China's refined copper imports fell 36.2 percent in March versus a year ago, customs data showed. China consumes about 40 percent of the world's copper.
TECHNICALS: LME copper is biased to fall to $5,592 per tonne, after its failure to break a resistance at $5,689.
COPPER SUPPLY: Workers at mining company Southern Copper Corp in Peru have reached a deal with management to end a two-week strike, a union official and a company spokesman said on Monday.
ALUMINIUM DEMAND: Aluminium producer Alcoa Corp raised its forecast for aluminium demand growth in 2017 to 4.5-5 percent, up from 4 percent projected in January. It also sees a 'modest' market surplus of 300,000-700,000 tonnes.
ALUMINIUM TECHNICALS: LME aluminium may break a resistance at $1,931 per tonne to gain a bit further to the next resistance at $1,964, to complete a bounce from the April 18 low of $1,892.
ALUMINIUM PRICES: Aluminium was last bid up 0.4 percent in rings at $1,953.50 a tonne.
OTHER METALS: Tin traded down 0.3 percent in rings at $19,600, lead was last bid up 0.1 percent at $2,165, zinc was last bid down 0.1 percent at $2,601 while nickel traded up 0.1 percent at $9,270, having earlier hit its lowest since last June at $9,230.
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