Copper made its biggest one-day gain since July 2013 on Tuesday, moving further away from the 5-1/2 year lows plumbed last week as oil rebounded and on market views that bad news had been priced in for now. Speculators buying back short positions added to the upward momentum, which swept other metals along as aluminium hit a six-week peak while zinc and nickel touched their highest in over three weeks.
Oil was higher, building on gains sparked by expectations that output will suffer following reports of declining rig counts and cuts in capital expenditure. This has lead some investors to buy into commodity funds that include copper. Also helping the metal, European stocks rose on hopes of an agreement in the Greek debt stand-off after the new government dropped calls for a write-off of its foreign borrowing. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange closed 3.3 percent up at $5,680 a tonne, its highest in more than a week and the biggest one-day percentage gain since July 2013.
Prices shed almost 13 percent in January and touched a 5-1/2 year low of $5,339.50 last week. "If we haven't already seen the lows for this year then we are very close to them," said Guy Wolf, a strategist at broker Marex Spectron. "Everyone knows the problems with the world but there's a growth boost to come from low oil prices and China is not collapsing. Add these factors together with a record-low short position on the LME and the market looks oversold."
Activity in China's factory sector shrank for the first time in more than two years last month, a private business survey showed, but the news raised hopes for more policy stimulus. Still, copper prices remain vulnerable to signs of rising supplies. Daily LME data showed copper stocks rose 225 tonnes to 250,250 tonnes - their highest point since April last year. Stocks are up more than one third this year.
"We believe copper and base metals prices in general will remain under pressure ... through the Chinese New Year in February until there is greater clarity on the Chinese economic growth target for this year after the meeting of the National People's Congress in March," J.P. Morgan said in a research note. China consumes some 45 percent of the world's copper. Aluminium ended up 1.1 percent at $1,891 a tonne, after hitting its highest since December 22. Shanghai Futures Exchange aluminium jumped earlier to its highest in more than a month.
"We believe aluminium has the best growth potential of any of the major base metals, owing to strengthening secular demand trends in automotive and aerospace coupled with consumer leverage in emerging markets," Nomura said in a note. Zinc closed up 1.3 percent at $2,155 a tonne after hitting the highest since January 9, lead ended flat at $1,850, tin finished up 0.5 percent at $18,950, while nickel dipped 0.1 percent to $15,310 after notching up the strongest level since January 9 at $15,505.
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