Copper steadies on China financing data; zinc and lead hit new lows

Copper prices steadied on Friday after a week of heavy losses as investors got a glimmer of hope that top metals consumer China was bolstering its economy with financing measures, according to Reuters.

Zinc and lead, however, touched fresh lows as gains in inventories highlighted weak demand and oversupply.

Data on Friday showed that new bank loans in China jumped by more than expected to an all-time high in January, reinforcing expectations for more stimulus in the coming months.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.2 percent to $8,206 per tonne at 2:30 p.m. Saudi time after it slumped to its lowest in nearly three months on Thursday.

The contract has lost 3.2 percent so far in the week, set for its biggest weekly loss since last August.

“The financial data is clearly a positive surprise, but this is only one nice print, people are still worried about China,” said Nitesh Shah, commodity strategist, WisdomTree.

“Instead of these micro interventions, the market is looking for much bolder steps, and we may only get that after the (Chinese) new year.”

The Shanghai Futures Exchange is closed on Friday and next week for the Lunar New Year holiday.

The prolonged property sector crisis in China has weighed on sentiment given that construction is a major consumer of base metals.

LME lead shed 1.1 percent to $2,033 a tonne, the weakest since Dec. 13. LME inventories on Friday rose to 150,675 tonnes, the highest in over six years, having surged by 39 percent in slightly over two weeks.

“The stocks data doesn’t paint an encouraging sign. The global manufacturing environment is quite weak so that’s probably why these stocks are continuing to build up,” Shah said.

Zinc slipped 0.2 percent to $2,322 a tonne, the weakest in over five months, after data on Friday showed 10,700 tonnes of inflows into LME warehouses, bringing the total to 227,225.

Also weighing on the market was a steady dollar, making it more expensive to buy greenback-priced commodities for those using other currencies.

Among other metals, LME aluminum dipped 0.4 percent to $2,213 per tonne while nickel rose 0.4 percent to $16,065 and tin added 0.3 percent to $25,970.