The most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained 1.68 percent to 55,130 yuan ($8,700) a tonne on Friday. Europe's sovereign debt crisis has tempered demand for manufactured goods from China and the rest of the world, sending commodities lower this year. The 19-commodity Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index has lost 8.5 percent this year.
China's vast factory sector shrank again in December as demand at home and abroad slackened, a purchasing managers' survey showed on Friday.