US copper futures trimmed their gains by the close on Wednesday as a weaker tone in the energy markets and dim global demand prospects left the industrial metal stalled in a fragile state. Copper for September delivery ended up 0.65 cent at $3.4235 a lb on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division.
The range was from $3.4150 to $3.4750. Copper consolidated from a recent technical sell-off that saw the September contract lose more than 17 percent of its value in a span of four weeks - trader. COMEX copper stocks fell by 200 short tons to 6,100 short tons on Tuesday.
COMEX estimated final futures volumes at 21,773 lots, versus Tuesday's official count at 21,909 lots. In industry news, Xstrata will spend C$121 million ($115 million) to deepen and extend the life of its Kidd copper and zinc mine in northern Ontario, Canada, the Anglo-Swiss mining giant said on Wednesday.