The most-traded April copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange traded flat at 42,080 yuan ($6,724) a tonne on Wednesday as China returned from a week-long holiday and selling resumed on prospects of ample local metal supply. Activity in China's mammoth factory sector edged to a four-month high in February but export orders shrank at their fastest rate in 20 months, a private survey showed, painting a murky outlook that could boost the case for more policy support.
"What we need from China is just an expectation that it won't fall off a cliff. Then I think copper will go OK," said analyst Dominic Schnider of UBS Wealth Management in Hong Kong. A physical trader in Singapore said that bonded copper premiums firmed to $90-$95 from $85 before the holiday and he expected them to climb to $100 soon. But a trader at a Western bank said, "I think China is going to lean pretty heavily on copper when it comes back next week." Across other metals, Shanghai zinc and lead fell 2 percent or more at the open, playing catch up with moves in London, before also cutting losses.
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