SHANGHAI, Apr 13 - LME copper prices closed at $8,960/mt overnight, a rise of 0.78%. Trading volumes were 15,000 lots and open interest stood at 249,000 lots. The most active SHFE 2305 copper contract finished at 69,410 yuan/mt overnight, up 0.64%. Trading volume was 38,000 lots and open interest stood at 169,000 lots.
On the macro front, the United States announced that the increase in CPI in March was lower than expected, making the market expect that the Fed may stop further rate hikes after raising interest rates in May, and the U.S. index dived lower, which is good for copper prices.
In terms of fundamentals, due to the narrowing of the price difference between the SHFE April copper contract and the May contract as the delivery approached, sellers raised their quotes. Most of the purchases were made on the dip yesterday. The overall trading was quiet.
At present, the speed of domestic inventory destocking has slowed down. The support from fundamentals for copper prices has weakened. But the market optimism over domestic consumption improvement underpinned copper prices.
