Three months London Metal Exchange (LME) copper prices closed higher on Friday, but still in ranges. The market was supported by tight world supply but with little appetite to push higher, dealers said. "Copper has stayed within ranges. People were a little surprised about the correction last week given the tightness in the market.
But I think it was to be expected as the price had been ramped up a little too high by the funds," one trader said.
Three months closed at $3,378 a tonne, up $32 from Thursday's kerb close.
World supply tightness increased with another 300-tonne fall in LME stocks, down to a total of 27,675.
Workers at a third Zambian mine joined a strike that had crippled copper production in the country, industry and union officials said.
And strike-bound US copper miner Asarco has broken the first supply contracts as its Amarillo, Texas refinery runs out of copper, its chief executive said on Thursday.
"The market has currently reached something of an impasse," Roy Carson of LME broker Triland Metals Ltd said in a report.
"The strike news has been digested (though we believe the Asarco situation could take a long time to resolve), and there is still a strong body of belief that prices are too high.
"Current activity is dominated by technical and fund interests with trade participation increasingly diminished for holiday reasons. We still suspect the highs have yet to be seen."
Aluminium closed slightly softer at $1,838 versus $1,842.50 on Thursday.
"Aluminium has held above the 200-day moving average at $1,830, which looks very positive," the first trader said.
Zinc and lead ended lower despite unions at Teck Cominco's Trail operation issuing a notice to strike that could see workers on the picket line as early as Tuesday.
Zinc was at $1,197, down $23, and lead ended down $8 at $825.
Traders said the closure of the Trail refinery would have little impact on the market in the short term as concentrate that would have gone into the plant would quickly be bought up by other refiners.
Tin pushed higher on consumer buying after a fund sell-off on Thursday dragged prices down by more than four percent.
The market was at $7,450, up $200, with analysts looking for the rally to top out around $7,700 in the immediate future.
Nickel was down $100 at $14,350/375.
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