Copper eased on Friday as a firm dollar capped sentiment and investors booked profits after the metal touched a three-week high in the previous session. Nickel, a key ingredient in stainless steel, and zinc used to galvanise steel fell around 4 percent as concerns about demand persisted. Three-months copper on the London Metal Exchange closed at $7,660 a tonne from $7,865 on Thursday.
Industrial metals - which rallied on Thursday amid a weaker dollar, an almost 5-percent gain in oil and gold at a 10-day high - were all lower on Friday. "It's profit-taking after a very volatile week and ahead of the long weekend in the U.K.", said Steve Hardcastle, analyst at brokerage house Sucden. Copper, used in construction and power, gained 5 percent on Thursday to touch $7,889 - the highest since August 4.
"Yesterday's spike in commodities brings up the question of whether the move we saw was a massive dead cat bounce, or the start of something more meaningful," MF Global analyst Edward Meir said in a note. In New York, copper for September delivery was down 8.00 cents at $3.4660 a lb on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division at 1603 GMT.
Also weighing on copper was on a 4.6-percent gain in LME-stocks to a six-month high of 163,800 tonnes. While in Shanghai, inventories fell in line with expectations, down 12 percent to 21,796 tonnes. Aluminium fell to $2,780 from $2,848 on Thursday, when it touched $2,860, the highest since August 11. Nickel was last quoted at $20,800/20,900, from $21,495, after touching a five-week high of $21,499 earlier in the session.
Lead hit $1,932.5 - the highest since August 11 - before closing at $1,885 from $1,905 on Thursday. Zinc eased to $1,830, against $1,880 on Thursday. Earlier it saw $1,871 - the highest price since July 31. Tin touched $21,850, the highest since the start of August, on supply concerns, before the last quote of $20,900/20,950 from Thursday's last bid at $21,790 a tonne.