Copper closed at a new record high on the London Metal Exchange (LME) on Wednesday, after a late surge of buying, with the market soon expected to test $6,000 a tonne, dealers said.
"Copper is going up. It's anyone's guess by how much or how quickly, but it looks like it is going to get to $6,000 easily," one LME dealer said.
Copper finished at a new all-time high of $5,340 a tonne, recovering from an early low of $5,258.50 and compared with its close of $5,315 on Tuesday.
"Most of the activity was done on the way down. On the way back up there were very few sellers. Trade is light and it looks like the funds took advantage of one of the thin periods to drive the market up," a second dealer said.
Copper has risen over 20 percent since the end of 2005, supported by a series of supply threats and low stock levels.
A strike at Grupo Mexico's 300,000 tonne-per-year La Caridad copper mine, landslides and environmental problems in Indonesia and a threatened strike at Zambia's Kansanshi copper mine, have kept copper prices bubbling, analysts said.
"Copper has got support from the strike in Mexico and the recent events in Indonesia," Angus MacMillan, minerals strategist at Bache Financial, said.
Zinc pared early losses, closing down $13 at $2,613, supported by a forecast of a 400,000-tonne deficit in 2006 issued by investment bank UBS on Wednesday.
Lead tested support at $1,200 as investors, discouraged by the metal's inability to break $1,250 resistance, liquidated their positions.
In contrast to zinc, UBS forecast a surplus of 30,000 tonnes for lead and stocks are at their highest in two years.
"Lead is down on stale bull liquidation. Lead did not go through the resistance level at $1,250 and people have been liquidating on the back of that," MacMillan said.
Lead closed at $1,210, down $33.
Aluminium was lower at $2,519 versus $2,550. Nickel fell $120 to $15,055 and tin was indicated steady at $8,225/250.
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