The most-traded June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, which had dropped 1.6 percent, pared losses to 1.2 percent at 43,260 yuan ($6,982) a tonne on Wednesday after Chinese factory activity performed a fraction better than expected, while nickel plumbed new six-year lows as China nickel pig iron producers sold stocks to raise cash.
Activity in China's factory sector unexpectedly picked up in March but remained weak.
"That's a very modest pickup - it doesn't look like a robustly bullish signal," said analyst Daniel Morgan at UBS in Sydney.
"We're now in April, and this is really when we should have metals trade, processing and consumption all roll to life in China. And just marginally into expansion territory, that's not a strong signal."
Surveys of China's factory and services sectors showed stubborn weakness in the world's second-biggest economy in March, adding to bets that Beijing will have to roll out more policy support to avert a sharper slowdown.
There was evidence of physical demand supporting prices, with nickel premiums in China bond jumping $15 to $115 a tonne.
Indonesia's ban on nickel ore exports last January was expected to strangle supply to China's stainless steel mills, but weak demand has doused the bull story for now.
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