Copper Puts On Show For Week Visitors, Prices On The Ascend

London Metal Exchange (LME) copper prices raced higher on Monday afternoon, erasing early weakness, but other industrial metals remained lower.

The recovery in copper prices enlivened a session had started slowly, as many participants were sidelined because of LME Dinner Week events.

During this week the worlds non-ferrous metals industry converges on London to make deals, attend seminars and socialise.

The highlight is the LME Dinner on Tuesday held in the huge Great Hall of the Grosvenor House Hotel where over 2,000 persons will dine and listen to speeches by Howard Davies head of Britains super-regulator, the Securities and Investments Board, and LME chairman Lord Bagri. Traders said that copper had initially looked weak following another LME warehouse stocks rise of over 3,000 tonnes.

But as the price neared $2,050, support picked-up and the price rose swiftly to $2,116 before some profit-taking saw it end at $2,095, up $17 from Friday.

The support at $2,050 kicked-in for the second time in the past two weeks and some traders reckoned the Chinese could be behind the buying.

The Chinese havent bought copper for several months....everyone expects them in before the end of the year as long as the price is right, one trader said.Among other metals zinc prices continued to fall as the impact of the recent vicious squeeze on nearby supplies faded from memory.

The price for prompt delivery metal slipped to $15 a tonne below benchmark three months delivery metal which itself was in a headlong flight lower. At one stage last month it was at more than a $250 premium.

Three months zinc touched $1,292 before rallying slightly to just above $1,300 a tonne.