SHANGHAI, Feb. 20 (SMM) –As LME copper prices rebounded slightly overnight, SHFE 1205 copper contract prices, the most active one, opened RMB 520/mt higher at RMB 59,810/mt Friday. SHFE three-month copper contract prices fluctuated around the daily moving average during the whole trading day, with upside resistance at the 5-day moving average and intraday high at RMB 60,200/mt. At the tail of trading, SHFE three-month copper contract prices drifted slightly lower and pared some of earlier gains owing to position closings. Finally, SHFE 1205 copper contract prices closed at RMB 59,750/mt, up RMB 460/mt or 0.78%. Positions for SHFE 1205 copper contracts were down 12,656 lots, and trading volumes were down 82,070 lots. Long investors took the opportunity of copper price corrections to conduct profit-taking, with low interest in keeping up with rising prices. With prevailing upward resistance, copper futures would look for support amid falling prices.

In the spot market, SHFE copper prices rebounded but could not reverse market pessimism towards future copper prices, so cargo-holders continued to sell goods aggressively at high levels, causing copper discounts to expand all the way. Mainstream copper discounts were reported between negative RMB 400-300/mt in Friday’s morning business. Daily traded prices for standard-quality copper were between RMB 59,150-59,350/mt, and RMB 59,200-59,400/mt for high-quality copper. Downstream producers chose to stand on the sidelines owing to replenishment of stocks earlier when copper prices were relatively low, and as they were skeptical about copper price rebounds. As a consequence, spot copper market transactions decreased significantly from the prior day. SHFE copper inventories increased by 18,940 mt to 217,142 mt in the week ending February 17th, highlighting the characteristic of delivery for SHFE current-month copper contracts February 15th.