"Sentiment in the metals markets was... boosted by data showing China's credit growth exceeded expectations in January," ANZ wrote. Chinese banks extended a record 3.23 trillion yuan ($478.07 billion) in net new yuan loans last month.
Copper hit a two-month high in Shanghai despite a big boost in Chinese inventories of the metal over the past two weeks, while London copper was higher for a fourth straight day.
PT Freeport Indonesia, which operates the Grasberg mine, said its copper concentrate export permit expired on Feb. 15 and it had not received export recommendations from the mining ministry that will help it to obtain a new permit.
FUNDAMENTALS
COPPER: The most-traded April copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 1.8 percent at 49,230 yuan after touching 49,260 yuan, its highest since Dec. 18.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange climbed as much as 1.1 percent to $6,258 a tonne, its highest since Feb. 8.
GRASBERG: The lack of permit "might have a little temporary impact because they are not exporting much this year," a trader said. Indonesia has already said the mine's copper concentrate exports will fall to 200,000 tonnes this year from about 1.2 million tonnes in 2018.
PREMIUMS: The premium for cash copper over the three-month LME price was at $5 a tonne on Friday, versus a discount of $19.25 a week earlier, indicating tighter immediate supply. In China, which in January imported the most unwrought copper in September, import premiums for physical copper stood at $64 a tonne, down from $68 a tonne a week ago.
SHFE STOCKS: Copper inventories in warehouses monitored by the ShFE rose 45.1 percent, or 64,491 tonnes, from two weeks earlier to 207,118 tonnes on Feb. 15. Zinc stocks were up 84.2 percent at 86,447 tonnes.
ZINC: Zinc, used to galvanise steel, rose as much as 2.3 percent in Shanghai to 21,830 yuan a tonne before closing up 1.1 percent. London zinc slipped by 0.3 percent.