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LONDON – Copper prices rose on Thursday on concerns that top metal consumers could lift a lockdown in China, despite concerns over weak global growth.
The benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose 0.4% to $ 9,273 per tonne in official open-outcry trading after falling 1.4% in the previous session.
On Thursday, for the first time in almost two months, more Shanghai residents were given the freedom to shop for groceries as authorities made further plans to exit the citywide COVID-19 lockdown.
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Stock markets fell on Thursday on concerns about an economic downturn, fueled by poor results a day earlier and the outlook of major U.S. retailers.
Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen, said: “The S&P 500 (Index Futures) is holding copper down today, indicating some underlying strength.”
“This strength is fundamentally based on the signs of a lockdown in China and low inventory that does not match the potential pick-up of demand.”
The most active June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange traded down 0.3% at 71,530 yuan ($ 10,576.04) a tonne during the day.
Aggressive U.S. rate-growth bets, the ongoing lockdown in China and a batch of weak economic readings from major countries have led to slower concerns and weighed on industrial metals.
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* Supporting metals was a slightly simpler dollar index, which makes greenback-formatting metals less expensive for buyers using other currencies.
* Global nickel market deficit deepened to 11,100 tonnes in March, from 1,800 tonnes a month earlier, data from the International Nickel Study Group showed on Wednesday.
* COLUMN- Nickel demand increased in 2021; This year it will be delivered: Andy Home.
* LME aluminum fell 0.6% to $ 2,839.50 and lead fell 0.5% to $ 2,043, but nickel rose 0.1% to $ 26,190, zinc rose 0.4% to $ 3,635 and tin rose 1.6% to $ 33,50.
($ 1 = 6.7634 Chinese yuan) (Additional report by Brijesh Patel in Bangalore; edited by Bernadette Baum and Krishna Chandra Iluri)