China's zinc up, copper flat

A slight pick up in the pace of China's economic growth in the second quarter brightened the outlook for metals demand on Wednesday, helping drive Shanghai zinc and London aluminium near their highest in more than a year. The most-traded September zinc contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange had motored ahead 1.2 percent to 16,675 yuan ($2,700) a tonne by 0308 GMT, having earlier reached its highest since February 2013, tracking a run up in London zinc of nearly 4 percent this month, while Shanghai copper was also near flat.
"The data today is all pretty good - the fine-tuning put in place definitely seems to be having the desired impact of stabilising growth and our view is that we're likely to see stronger growth again in the second half," said analyst Lachlan Shaw at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Melbourne.