SHANGHAI, Mar 14 - LME copper closed with a gain of 1.72% at $8,928/mt overnight. Trading volume stood at 36,000 lots. Open interest stood at 244,000 lots. The most active SHFE 2304 copper contract finished at 68,840 yuan/mt overnight, up 0.19%. Trading volume was 78,000 lots and open interest stood at 142,000 lots. Although the US authorities took quick actions to control the impact of the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the market bet that the Federal Reserve will slow down or even stop raising interest rates to curb inflation in order to reduce the impact on the financial market. The US dollar index fell overnight.
In terms of fundamentals, as of Monday March 13, copper stocks in major Chinese markets tracked by SMM fell 8,700 mt from last Friday to 262,400 mt. The current total inventory increased 65,800 mt from 196,600 mt before the Chinese New Year holidays. The decline in inventory is mainly due to the limited arrivals of imported copper and the export of domestic copper. In addition, downstream companies are actively replenishing their stocks on the dip for the peak season in March. With the arrival of the peak season and the drop in copper prices, consumption is expected to continue to recover. Due to the impact of macroeconomics, copper prices are expected to run at low levels in the near term.
