Comex copper ended near the day's highs on Thursday, boosted by bargain hunting after on Wednesday's sell-off dragged futures down about 5 percent to 2-1/2 month lows, traders said.
Traders seemed to shrug off news of a miner's strike in Peru, instead focusing on copper's oversold state after a prior storm of speculative liquidation due to worries about China reducing its demand for raw materials.
"I think the market has digested quite a bit of selling and we're just sitting in a range down here," said a broker. Comex active July copper rose 1.60 cents to $1.1925 a lb., dealing in a $1.1650-$1.1955 session range.
Spot May went up 1.45 cents to $1.1920, dealing from $1.1625 to $1.1950, before on Friday's first notice day for delivery.
The back months went up 1.60 to 2.30 cents. Players did not react strongly to news of a strike at Southern Peru Copper Corp, where union workers at two mines walked off the job over contracts and benefits for 60,000 workers who currently lack them.
"The strike is being supported by Toquepala and Cajon (mines) at Ilo (plant) they have not supported the strike. Everything is peaceful," a Southern Peru union official said. No one was immediately available for comment at Southern Peru itself, one of the world's top 10 copper producers.
A copper trader said July futures rose only fractionally after the strike news. Another trader said copper was supported at Thursday's lower prices by bargain hunting, arbitrage buying and a weaker dollar that boosts spot demand for the dollar-priced metals.
Copper fell in the last session after China said it was committed to forceful measures to cool its dangerously fast-growing economy, but traders and analysts said on Thursday demand for raw materials will still grow this year.
They said China still had a chance to match an official 2004 target for economic expansion of at least 7 percent.
Separately, Chile's state-owned Codelco, the world's top copper minor, said it has now sold around 60,000 tonnes of a 200,000-tonne stockpile from last year.
It expects to complete the sale this year. Final estimated Comex copper futures volume was 27,000 lots, versus on Wednesday's official count of 29,108. Open interest fell 4,050 to 65,268 lots.
Traders believe short-term resistance in Comex July copper lurks at $1.20 and support rests at $1.15 a lb. London Metal Exchange three-month copper ended $52 higher at $2,632 a tonne. Comex is a division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.