The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was up 0.95 percent at 47,950 yuan ($6,957) a tonne on Monday following hefty gains last week on the back of strong economic data from the United States and China. In other Shanghai metals, aluminium was off 0.11 percent, zinc rose 1 percent and lead gained 0.61 percent.
Customs figures on Friday showed China shipped in a record 4.95 million tonnes of copper in 2016, while US data revealed broad retail sales in that country climbed in December.
But a commodities trader in Perth cautioned against reading too much into copper's modest contraction. "Sentiment still favours the bulls," he said on condition of anonymity. "All the data we are seeing is supportive."
Traders said they were worried that the country's abrupt easing of a three-year ban on such exports would drag on prices for the metal, despite assurances over the weekend from top Indonesian mining officials that the step would not flood the global market with supply.