London copper prices pared an early 5 percent gain on Wednesday as investor clamour for industrial raw materials ahead of a re-weighting of the Dow Jones AIG and S&P GSCI commodities indices faded. The Dow Jones index is adding weight to copper traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division and takes place from January 9 to 15.
Re-weighting the S&P GSC will take place from January 8 to 14. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rallied 5.3 percent to a one-month high of $3,570 a tonne in early trade, a gain of more than 16 percent from the end of 2008.