Shanghai copper rose more than 1 percent on Friday, snapping two days of declines, as bullish sentiment gained hold, underpinned by strong US retail sales data and talk that China may revalue its currency soon. Top US retail chains posted a record rise in monthly same-store sales for March, helped by an early Easter holiday and an improving job market, in the strongest sign yet of revived consumer demand.
Shanghai's benchmark third-month copper futures contract rose 1.25 percent to 62,570 yuan by the close, a 0.4 percent weekly loss. The most-active contract for July delivery rose 1.4 percent to 62,930 yuan a tonne. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange gained $65 to $7,960 a tonne, heading for a small weekly gain of 0.9 percent.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange is scheduled to release its weekly warehouse stocks data after the market closes. Last week, its copper stocks fell 1 percent on the week to 153,589 tonnes, down 9 percent from a more than 7-1/2-year peak of 169,101 tonnes hit in late-March.