Base metals traded erratically in Thursday open-outcry trading on the London Metal Exchange (LME), bouncing between early consumer buying and then profit-taking, before ending relatively steady, traders said.
The market initially rose on consumer buying in midday trading, but then reached a two-way split in the first rings of the afternoon as key metals such as copper, aluminium and nickel, succumbed to profit-taking while the rest stayed firm.
However, profit taking wiped out most gains for all metals by the kerb close. "We had some consumer buying at first which encouraged further speculative interest but lacked enough momentum to advance much further, and there was a bit of scrabble for taking profits," a trader said.
Traders said comments on world commodities prices by US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan had slightly spooked the market, despite many seen firm on tight fundamentals.
Asked about China's economy and a recent surge in global commodity prices, Greenspan said it was an "easy forecast" to say economic growth in the Asian giant would slow.
"You cannot continue to expect a rate of increase in the Chinese economy anywhere near where it's been recently and my impression is it's going to slow down to a more sustainable (rate)," he said.
This will inevitably feed into prices for such commodities as scrap steel, copper, zinc and aluminium.
"Clearly if the rate of growth slows down, we are going to see a backing up of some of those prices. And indeed, we've already seen it. Scrap steel prices are down quite significantly from their peak several weeks ago and a number of the other metals have either flattened out or edged lower," he said.
The market also exercised caution ahead of the US payrolls report on Friday - a strong number might eventually lead to a firmer dollar, weighing on metals.
April non-farm payrolls are set for release at 1230 GMT and are forecast to show creation of 173,000 new jobs, a marked moderation from March's additional 308,000, but still evidence that labour conditions are tightening.
Copper closed the official rings at $2,720, a $12 advance from Wednesday's kerb, while aluminium shed $14 to $1,666.
Nickel, which moved comfortably above $11,000 on Wednesday on forward buying interest, rebounded at resistance in the $11,500/11,600 area, closing at $11,050, down $140.
Lead triggered buy-stops above $750, and initially rose $24 to $760/762, before ending at $754. Zinc rose $9 to $1,059.
Tin was untraded in the kerb close, ending at $8,800/825, up $50 and looked set to re-test $9,000. The cash/threes backwardation narrowed to $300 from $350 the day before, despite inventories falling 530 tonnes to 4,400 tonnes.