Copper suffered its biggest one-day loss in about three weeks on Monday, as concerns about sustained softness in Chinese buying and rising inventory levels continued to hold investment demand back. Since hitting record highs at $10,190 per tonne in London and $4.6575 per lb in New York last month, prices surrendered as much as 12 percent of their value before settling into an aimless range over the last few sessions, awaiting any sign of life in the physical market, analysts said.
COMEX May copper shed 6.90 cents or 1.56 percent to settle at $4.35 per lb. COMEX copper futures volumes slowed to 28,926 lots at 2:08 p.m. EDT (1908 GMT), about 40 percent below the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.