BENGALURU- Nonferrous metals fell in London on Monday after somewhat underwhelming stimulus from China and weak inflation data weighed on the market.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell 1 percent to $9,694.5 per metric ton. The most-traded November copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) dipped 0.1 percent to 77,220 yuan ($10,910.17) a ton.
LME nickel lost 1.2 percent to $17,645, zinc dropped 2 percent to $3,092, lead decreased 0.7 percent to $2,081.5 and tin was down 1.1 percent at $32,840.
At a press conference on Saturday, Chinese Finance Minister Lan Foan pledged to “significantly increase” debt, but left investors guessing on the overall size of the stimulus.
Despite the lack of details, the Chinese central bank’s effective support for equity markets could ultimately be beneficial to commodity markets, ANZ said in a note.
China is a major consumer of base metals. The health of the Chinese property sector is key to the market, given that construction is a major user of base metals.