The most-traded June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed 0.5 percent to 46,190 yuan ($7,400) a tonne on Friday as hopes for stimulus in top metals user China put it on target for its biggest weekly rise in six months. Worries about unravelling Chinese demand have kept investors on edge since a bond default by a Chinese solar panel maker this month drove copper prices to the lowest since July 2010.
But warmer weather has begun to boost orders from construction and manufacturing sectors, buttressing prices, while China's leaders have pledged to step in to support growth. "I see no signs to backtrack on a base case of moderately healthy demand in China this year," said analyst Joel Crane of Morgan Stanley in Melbourne.