The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange traded up 1.43 percent at 40,450 yuan ($5,968) a tonne on Tuesday on growing signs that Hillary Clinton will win the US presidential election over her Republican rival Donald Trump. Shanghai copper futures showed consistent gains, with some traders hedging expectations that the value of the US dollar would erode if Trump eked out a victory.
Democratic candidate Clinton, who has a 90 percent chance of winning according to the final Reuter/Ipsos States of the Nation project, is viewed as a status quo candidate with more predictable policies than Trump. That means news favouring Clinton tends to boost risk appetites. Helen Lau, an analyst for Argonaut in Hong Kong, said that while longer term a Clinton victory could spur industrial activity and greater metals consumption, the immediate impact of a Trump win and a weaker dollar would be "knee-jerk" buying.