Copper pares gains at LME

Copper prices fell away during late afternoon trading on the London Metal Exchange (LME) as the market was unable to sustain new record highs hit above the $4,500 a tonne level earlier, traders said.
"It has drifted back after that knee-jerk reaction to the upside (this morning). There wasn't really any follow through," one said.
Business was fairly light during the first trading session since the Christmas holiday recess, and this pattern is likely to continue during the rest of the week, traders said.
"Overall the sentiment in the metals is still very bullish and it is hard to see this changing in the near term," analyst William Adams of Basemetals.com said.
Trading is likely to remain thin, but this will probably deter funds from profit-taking, he added.
"This suggests that any end of year profit-taking will have already been done, although if prices do move lower then stop-loss selling may add to the downward momentum, as was seen at the end of 2004," he said.
Copper hit a high of $4,511.50 a tonne, then ended the open-outcry session at $4,483, still well up from last Friday's close of $4,450.
Supply concerns were underscored by news that contract workers at Chile's Codelco had threatened to strike unless they were paid a bonus tied to copper prices.
Codelco produced 1.8 million tonnes of copper last year, against world production of around 16 million tonnes.
Trends elsewhere were mixed, although most metals came off their intra-day highs with copper.
Zinc slipped back to close at $1,884 from $1,881, after hitting $1,899 earlier, the highest since March 1989.
Ongoing support, however, stems from recent news that China's third largest smelter, with a capacity of around 150,000 tonnes a year, had been shut temporarily on environmental grounds. The plant also produces 70,000-80,000 tonnes of lead.
Lead fell back as well, ending at $1,096/1,098, down $14.
Aluminium finished at $2,272, against the previous $2,276, stalling below its recent 17-year peak of $2,289.
In the thinly-traded metals, tin was at $6,675/6,700, against $6,550, while nickel rose to $13,550 from $13,275.