AIRLINK 62.48 Increased By ▲ 2.05 (3.39%)
BOP 5.36 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.19%)
CNERGY 4.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.43%)
DFML 15.50 Increased By ▲ 0.66 (4.45%)
DGKC 66.40 Increased By ▲ 1.60 (2.47%)
FCCL 17.59 Increased By ▲ 0.73 (4.33%)
FFBL 27.70 Increased By ▲ 2.95 (11.92%)
FFL 9.27 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (2.32%)
GGL 10.06 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (1%)
HBL 105.70 Increased By ▲ 1.49 (1.43%)
HUBC 122.30 Increased By ▲ 4.78 (4.07%)
HUMNL 6.60 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.92%)
KEL 4.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-1.1%)
KOSM 4.48 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-1.97%)
MLCF 36.20 Increased By ▲ 0.79 (2.23%)
OGDC 122.92 Increased By ▲ 0.53 (0.43%)
PAEL 23.00 Increased By ▲ 1.09 (4.97%)
PIAA 29.34 Increased By ▲ 2.05 (7.51%)
PIBTL 5.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-2.36%)
PPL 107.50 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.12%)
PRL 27.25 Increased By ▲ 0.74 (2.79%)
PTC 18.07 Increased By ▲ 1.97 (12.24%)
SEARL 53.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.63 (-1.17%)
SNGP 63.21 Increased By ▲ 2.01 (3.28%)
SSGC 10.80 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.47%)
TELE 9.20 Increased By ▲ 0.71 (8.36%)
TPLP 11.44 Increased By ▲ 0.86 (8.13%)
TRG 70.86 Increased By ▲ 0.95 (1.36%)
UNITY 23.62 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (0.47%)
WTL 1.28 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 6,944 Increased By 65.8 (0.96%)
BR30 22,827 Increased By 258.6 (1.15%)
KSE100 67,142 Increased By 594.3 (0.89%)
KSE30 22,090 Increased By 175.1 (0.8%)

LONDON: Copper prices edged lower on Friday as investors sought to balance a potential boost to metals demand from the reopening of China against weak short-term signals of consumption as the country celebrates the Lunar New Year.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) slipped 0.7% to $9,245 a tonne in official open-outcry trading, taking its gains to about 1% for this week and 11% for the month so far.

“We think the recent increase in base metals will hold, more or less, but this quarter will be challenging,” said Edward Gardner, commodities economist at Capital Economics in London.

“It’s not until March that we get the new budget for China, where they expect to see some new stimulus measures.”

Capital Economics expects the LME copper price to weaken this quarter, ending March at $8,500 a tonne before rebounding to end the year close to the current level, he added.

People across China on Friday crowded into trains and buses for one of its busiest days of travel in years, feeding fears of new surges in a COVID-19 outbreak that officials say has hit its peak.

Copper declines on recession and Chinese demand fears

Shanghai Futures Exchange copper closed 0.1% up at 70,420 yuan ($10,399.47) a tonne, with a weekly gain of 2.3%.

The exchange will remain closed for trading on Friday evening and next week because of the Lunar New Year holidays.

“For now, onshore physicals are soft, copper demand is still 10% lower year on year and import arbitrage is negative,” said Zerlina Zeng, a senior research analyst at Fitch Solutions.

“But onshore traders are turning more positive on China’s macro outlook.”

SHFE copper inventories jumped 36.6% to 139,967 tonnes on Friday.

CITIC Futures noted strong production among smelters this month and that weak consumption could result a higher than normal inventories build-up during the holiday, reaching as high as 300,000 tonnes.

Among other metals, LME aluminium rose 1% in official activity to $2,613 a tonne and tin advanced 1.8% to $29,315 while zinc eased 0.9% to $3,425, nickel dropped 1.9% to $28,800 and lead was little changed at $2,143.

Comments

Comments are closed.