AGL 39.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.49 (-1.23%)
AIRLINK 128.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.56 (-0.43%)
BOP 6.83 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.19%)
CNERGY 4.71 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (4.9%)
DCL 8.42 Decreased By ▼ -0.13 (-1.52%)
DFML 41.09 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (0.66%)
DGKC 82.25 Increased By ▲ 1.29 (1.59%)
FCCL 33.10 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (1.01%)
FFBL 74.06 Decreased By ▼ -0.37 (-0.5%)
FFL 11.92 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (1.53%)
HUBC 109.62 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.04%)
HUMNL 14.12 Increased By ▲ 0.37 (2.69%)
KEL 5.22 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-1.69%)
KOSM 7.47 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-3.24%)
MLCF 39.20 Increased By ▲ 0.60 (1.55%)
NBP 63.99 Increased By ▲ 0.48 (0.76%)
OGDC 193.25 Decreased By ▼ -1.44 (-0.74%)
PAEL 25.59 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-0.47%)
PIBTL 7.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-1.22%)
PPL 153.50 Decreased By ▼ -1.95 (-1.25%)
PRL 25.99 Increased By ▲ 0.20 (0.78%)
PTC 17.53 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.17%)
SEARL 81.50 Increased By ▲ 2.85 (3.62%)
TELE 7.64 Decreased By ▼ -0.22 (-2.8%)
TOMCL 33.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.33 (-0.98%)
TPLP 8.40 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
TREET 16.42 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (0.92%)
TRG 56.70 Decreased By ▼ -1.52 (-2.61%)
UNITY 27.55 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.22%)
WTL 1.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-2.88%)
BR100 10,526 Increased By 80.9 (0.77%)
BR30 31,136 Decreased By -53.5 (-0.17%)
KSE100 98,370 Increased By 572.2 (0.59%)
KSE30 30,725 Increased By 243.9 (0.8%)

US copper futures erased gains to close lower on Friday, with quarter-end position adjustments and losses in the crude oil market leading the way down for the broader metals complex, analysts said.
"The markets are really cueing off of oil right now. Crude oil is leading the commodity complex around by the nose," said Ralph Preston, senior market analyst with Heritage West Financial in San Diego, California. US crude oil futures ended down more than $2 on Friday. Copper for May delivery ended down 4.15 cents at $3.8315 a lb on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division, after dealing in a session range between $3.8025 and $3.9275, its loftiest price level since March 7.
Final estimated futures volumes totalled 12,606, down from Thursday's final count of 17,890 lots. Open interest in the market increased 1,661 lots to 100,318 contracts open as of March 27. The week, the active May copper contract is up more than 7 percent. Traders were not surprised to see prices pull back on Friday, especially ahead of the end of the first quarter next week.
"We're ending the quarter, so between today, on Sunday and Monday, you're going to see more of the same guys locking in some of this last week's upward move," said Larry Young, senior trader at Infinity Futures Inc, in Chicago.
On Thursday, copper prices rallied nearly 4 percent on the back of in-line US fourth quarter GDP data that showed the economy grow at an annual pace of 0.6 percent. On Friday saw bout of follow-through buying momentum after weekly inventory data from China showed copper stockpiles in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange drop 18 percent, snapping a string of weekly increases in place since late January.
Analysts questioned whether or not the outflows were actually funnelling through to Chinese end-users or just finding their way into overseas warehouses. In London, stocks of copper fell by 1,975 tonnes to 115,250 tonnes on Friday, and are down more than 40 percent since the start of the year.
Fundamentally, copper's supply/demand balance remained critically tight, with falling global inventory levels and ever-present concerns about production problems highlighted in the International Copper Study Group's (ICSG) latest monthly bulletin.

Copyright Reuters, 2008

Comments

Comments are closed.