Copper rose in London and Shanghai on Wednesday, buoyed by positive US purchasing manager data and comments by the Federal Reserve Chairman that markets are in better shape now than last year. Sentiment got a lift from a report on the US service economy showing April's PMI rose to 43.7 from 40.8, creeping closer to the watershed 50 mark that divides economic contraction from expansion.
Investor hopes that the economic slowdown may be bottoming were also fuelled when Fed chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday said markets were in "far better shape" than last autumn.