LONDON: Copper prices rose on Friday, but not enough to offset losses earlier in the week as turmoil in the banking sector raised the threat of bank failures and slower economic growth.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.8% at $8,584.50 a tonne at 1700 GMT, but down more than 3% over the week.
Prices slumped by 3.7% on Wednesday alone as the collapse of two mid-sized US lenders was followed by a crisis engulfing Switzerland’s Credit Suisse. Copper hit a 10-week low of $8,442 a tonne on Thursday.
Fears of banking contagion had seemed to ease a little by Friday after the Swiss central bank gave massive emergency funding to Credit Suisse and US authorities and banks took action to rescue First Republic Bank.
But concern remained, with SVB Financial Group filing for a court-supervised reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and European and US stock indexes falling again.
The mood on wider markets will dictate copper’s near-term price movement, said Saxo Bank strategist Ole Hansen, though he expects strong fundamentals to lift prices before long.
Analysts at Citi said they expected copper to fall to $8,000 a tonne in the coming months amid concerns over the US banking system and credit growth.
“We see this as a strong long-term buying opportunity,” they said, predicting that prices would recover to $9,000 within six to 12 months.
In top consumer China, demand is rebounding and is likely to stay strong in the next quarter, buoyed by a seasonal peak in demand and easing COVID-19 restrictions.
Adding impetus to China’s economic recovery, the country’s central bank plans to cut the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves.
Other industrial metals also rose on Friday.
LME aluminium was up 0.4% at $2,276 a tonne, zinc rose 1.6% to $2,903, nickel gained 0.7% to $23,405, lead added 1.3% to $2,093 and tin was up 1.2% at $22,475.
Nickel and lead were headed for small weekly gains, while aluminium, zinc and tin were slightly down over the week.
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