Copper surged to a one-month high above $1.50 a lb in New York futures trade on Tuesday as the early-2009 buying momentum gathered pace amid economic stimulus optimism and an annual portfolio rebalancing by index funds. Copper for March delivery rallied 12.40 cents, or 8.5 percent, to settle at $1.5830 a lb on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division.
Final volume on Monday reached 12,855 lots.