SHANGHAI, Sept. 11 (SMM) –LME copper fell back from highs overnight. This allowed SHFE 1511 copper to start slightly higher but trend lower during Wednesday evening session. SHFE copper started at RMB 41,220/mt and then moved lower to RMB 40,840/mt after meeting resistance at moving average. Finally, the red metal closed RMB 60/mt higher at RMB 40,880/mt. Positions declined 1,416 to 231,798 with trading volumes around 280,000 lots.

The contract moved stably around RMB 40,800/mt Thursday morning with a lower session-start in Chinese stock market and then followed LME copper up to RMB 41,000/mt before ending at RMB 41,060/mt, up by RMB 240/mt or 0.59%. Positions declined 2,374 to 230,840 and trading volumes decreased 258,000 lots.

In Shanghai market, spot copper was offered RMB 20-60/mt below SHFE 1509 copper on Thursday, versus RMB 40,800-40,880/mt for standard-quality copper and RMB 40,820-40,900/mt for high-quality copper.

Market supply stabilized on Thursday. Huge amount of high-quality copper forced them to be traded at lows while standard-quality copper and hydro-copper enjoys high popularity. Traders thus were unwilling to sell standard-quality copper at lows but meanwhile the prices were hard to be raised further. Low prices attracted downstream buyers to enter market. Prices diverged a lot between different brand copper and this allowed transactions to be mixed. Trading activity among traders declined.