Shanghai copper firmed on Thursday, as a softer dollar and improving economic data from top metals consumer China buoyed market sentiment.
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) rose 0.7% to 76,090 yuan ($10,413.02)per ton, as of 0315 GMT.
The dollar index holds near a three-year low hit last week, making greenback-priced commodities cheaper for buyers using other currencies.
China’s economy grew 5.4% year on year in the first quarter, data showed on Wednesday, surpassing estimates, underpinned by solid consumption and industrial output.
“Copper led the base metals higher after better-than-expected economic data in China boosted sentiment,” said Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ Bank.
Meanwhile, Beijing ordered airlines to not take further deliveries of Boeing aircraft, while US government limited exports of Nvidia’s H20 artificial intelligence chip to China.
“If global GDP growth falls below 3%, we could see a reduction in copper demand by approximately 5–10%,” ANZ said in a note. Elsewhere, Copper output in Peru, the world’s third-largest producer of the red metal, was virtually flat in February from the same month a year ago, data from the nation’s energy and mines ministry showed on Wednesday.
Copper slips from fresh peak after downbeat Chinese data
The benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was steady at $9,199 a metric ton.
LME aluminium gained 0.4% to $2,391.5 a ton, lead rose 0.6% at $1,919, nickel was steady at $15,690 a ton, zinc rose 1.2% at $2,612, while tin was up 1% at $31,095.
SHFE aluminium firmed 0.7% to 19,700 yuan a ton, zinc fell 0.1% to 22,125 yuan, lead rose 0.2% to 16,785 yuan, tin firmed 0.2% to 258,250 yuan and nickel gained 0.9% to 125,860 yuan.
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