Copper fell on Wednesday in London to a 4-1/2-month low and sank to a fresh 2012 trough in New York, hit hard by a frenzy of risk-averse selling tied to global growth concerns and worries about Greece's possible exit from the euro zone. In New York, the COMEX July contract plumbed a new low dating back to late December, at $3.3865 per lb, before ending to session down 9.10 cents or 2.6 percent at $3.3960.
It was the contract's largest one-day slide since April 4, when it collapsed by more than 3 percent. COMEX volumes picked up with more than 70,000 lots traded late in New York, down just 10 percent from the 30-day average, according to preliminary Thomson Reuters data.