Copper steadied on Tuesday as falling stocks and stronger consumer interest offset worries about demand from China and the United States, the world's top two consumers. Tin rallied more than 5 percent to $22,050 a tonne as investors bet on strong fundamentals.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange closed at $7,915 a tonne, little changed from $7,930 at the close on Monday when the metal used in the power and construction industries hit a 10-week low of $7,825.25.
Stocks of the metal in LME warehouses fell by 1,050 tonnes to 122,900 tonnes - less than three days global consumption. "Inventory numbers (for copper) were friendly enough today," said Michael Jansen, analyst at J.P. Morgan.
Tin was untraded at the close, but bid higher at $21,150 a tonne on bullish LME stock data, from $20,950 on Monday. Stocks of tin in LME warehouses rose 5 tonnes to 7,450 tonnes, but about 4.5 percent of that is in cancelled warrants and so is not available to the market.
Worries about supply shortfalls from top producers China and Indonesia pushed tin to a record $25,500 a tonne in the middle of May. Prices have slipped since then, but analysts say fundamentals are strong. Lead gained nearly 4 percent to $2,090 a tonne. It ended at $2,055.5 a tonne from $2,013 on Monday. Aluminium ended at $2,926 from $2,930. Zinc closed at $1,939 a tonne from $1,970 and nickel at $22,300 from $22,200.
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