The London Metal Exchange generated its first Asia benchmark prices for copper, aluminium and zinc on Monday, at $9,550, $2,432 and $2,345.6 per tonne, respectively. The values are a volume-weighted average of trades on the LME's electronic platform in a 15-minute window from 0700 GMT to 0715 GMT.
The last trade in three-month copper on the LME before Shanghai closed was around $9,545 a tonne, while by the time the benchmarks were published at 0730 GMT, copper had dropped to $9,530. Day earlier, Shanghai's benchmark third-month copper futures contract rose 1.1 percent to 71,890 yuan.
Some traders have questioned the timing of the window when the benchmark is calculated - in the fifteen minutes after the Shanghai market closes, rather than timed to coincide with the Shanghai close.