Shanghai Copper Futures Barely Higher On LME, Equities

BEIJING, Feb 02, 2012 (Dow Jones) --Copper futures ended just higher on the Shanghai Futures Exchange Thursday, tracking firmer equities and overnight strength in London counterparts in the morning before retreating in the afternoon as market participants turned more cautious.

The most actively traded April copper contract settled 0.1% higher at CNY59,860 a metric ton.

"This past month's [copper rally] has more to do with the expectation of growing liquidity...In our view, it is too early to expect real demand for industrial metals to improve and rallies to be sustainable," Standard Bank analyst Marc Ground said.

Commerzbank speculated Wednesday that weaker U.S. economic data have "probably also increased the likelihood of a new round of monetary easing measures," supporting base metal prices.

Spot copper traded at the Changjiang Nonferrous Metals Trading Market, a major spot market in Shanghai, was quoted at CNY58,850-59,050/ton, down from CNY58,950-59,150/ton Wednesday.

London Metal Exchange base metals closed mostly higher Wednesday due to talk of an imminent Greek debt deal and relatively strong manufacturing data from around the world.

Three-month copper ended the afternoon kerb 1.4% higher at $8,439/ton.

The contract was quoted 0.1% lower at $8,427/ton around 0700 GMT, when the Shanghai market closed.

Lead and aluminum tracked copper upward Thursday. Zinc fell a bit.

Following are Thursday's settlement prices in yuan a metric ton and LME late kerb prices from Wednesday in dollars a ton:

SHFE                  LME
Copper      Apr  59,860  Up   50  3Mo 8,439    Up  119
Aluminum    Apr  16,260  Up   15  3Mo 2,265    Up  28
Zinc        Apr  15,875  Down 20  3Mo 2,131    Up  25
Lead        Mar  16,080  Up   40  3Mo 2,234.5  Up  12.5