Industrial metals trimmed earlier losses on Friday, tracking US equities, which retreated from the morning's plunge after the US Federal Reserve injected money into the banking system, analysts said. US stocks pared earlier losses and turned positive after the Fed's second cash injection while European shares ended the day almost 3 percent down.
With London-listed miners such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton tumbling 5 to 6 percent. Copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange ended the day at $7,450/7,455 a tonne, up $15 from Thursday after falling to a fresh six-week low of $7.275 earlier in the day.
"Central banks injecting money into the system and putting the liquidity back, have helped the market," metals analyst Michael Widmer at Calyon said. The Fed and European Central Bank pumped at least $323.3 billion into the banking system in the past 48 hours to ward off a global credit crisis.
"We saw a rally of more than $150 in copper from the lows it saw earlier this morning. It's mainly tracking the stock markets and US stocks have bounced a bit," an LME trader said. Earlier, copper hit a session low of $7,275 a tonne, its lowest since June 27, but it was still 15 percent higher than the start of the year.
"The key issue relevant to the metals markets right now is if commodities will prove to be something of a 'safe haven' during these rocky times, or whether they too, will get swept away in the downdraft," MF Global said in a research note.
"Investors are classing metals as relatively risky, but the fundamentals remain strong," said Daniel Hynes at Merrill Lynch. "It is way too early to say whether what's happening in the financial markets will affect global economic growth. If it does then those fundamentals will weaken...but at this stage it is risk aversion and sentiment."
Metals and other commodities would prove resilient to the meltdown in the sub-prime market, Barclays Capital said. "We see any spillover into commodities of the current financial market turmoil as short term in nature," the bank said in a market report, pinpointing lead and zinc as most likely to rise in the near future.
Aluminium ended the day $2,590, down $11. Closely-watched imports of copper into China, the world's number one user of the metal, were 206,830 tonnes in July, down 2.7 percent from June.
"That's quite a good number - much higher than many people had expected - and could provide some comfort to the market," a trader in Shanghai said. "Based on that total figure, refined imports should be in the region of 90,000 tonnes."
Weekly data showed a 1,595-tonne fall in Shanghai copper stocks. Industrial unrest continued to lend some support, in particular a walkout by 3,000 miners at Mexico's top copper miner, Grupo Mexico. Nickel, an ingredient in rust-free steels, was down more than 2 percent or $600 at $26,600/26,650, after falling to a session low of $25,650, matching the low set last September.
Germany's largest steelmaker, ThyssenKrupp, said new order volumes for stainless steel fell in its third quarter, but the values of those orders rose, owing partially to the high nickel price. The company expects the stainless steel market to rebound in the fourth calendar quarter.
Zinc was down $60 at $3,330, lead was down $180 at $2,920, and tin, which hit an all-time high of $17,050 earlier in the week, finished at $15,750/15,800, falling more than 5 percent or $875.