The most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 1.1 percent to 46,080 yuan ($6,705) a tonne on Friday as investors exercised caution ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, looking past data that showed China's economy grew slightly faster than expected.
China's gross domestic product expanded 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter, outpacing market forecast of 6.7 percent, supported by higher government spending and record bank lending.
Expectations that China will continue to spur economic activity this year should boost demand in the world's top copper consumer and sustain the market's upbeat outlook for the metal, said Chris Wu, analyst at CRU consultancy in Beijing.
"We think the bottom has appeared in 2016 and we will see the copper price stay in a higher trading region in 2017 and start to climb up from 2018 because of the structural copper shortage in the market," said Wu.
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