Copper prices in London fell to a 11-week low on Thursday, as a firm dollar made greenback-priced metals more expensive to holders of other currencies.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell 0.3 percent to $8,143 per metric ton. The contract hit $8,120 earlier in the session, its lowest since June 1.
The most-traded September copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.2 percent to 67,710 yuan ($9,253.92) a ton.
The dollar index touched a two-month high as a resilient US economy underscored the need for higher-for-longer interest rates.
Property debt issues and weak data from China, the world’s second-biggest economy and biggest consumer of metals, have also been pressuring prices of copper, often used as a gauge of the global economic health.
But cushioning prices were China’s central bank injecting more liquidity into the market to support financial assets, and major state-owned banks selling dollars to buy yuan.
“The government is trying to support CNH (offshore yuan) from weakening too much too fast,” said a metals trader.
LME aluminum fell 0.5 percent to $2,132.50 per ton, nickel was almost flat at $19,810, zinc dipped 0.5 percent to $2,272.50, lead stayed almost unchanged at $2,121 while tin fell 0.9 percent to $24,850.
