London copper prices edged higher on Thursday, buoyed by a slight pullback in the dollar and easing COVID-19 restrictions in China, although mounting worries over a global economic slowdown limited gains.
Shanghai will start allowing more businesses in zero-COVID areas to resume normal operations from the start of June, deputy mayor Zhang Wei said as the city prepares for the end of lockdown.
“Sentiment had been buoyed by hopes that China is making progress towards an exit from strict lockdowns,” commodity strategists at ANZ said in a note.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.4 percent at $9,276 a ton, as of 0530 GMT, after dropping 1.4 percent in the previous session. LME aluminum was up 0.1 percent at $2,859.50 a ton
The most-active June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was down 0.3 percent at 71,550 yuan ($10,586.04)aton.
However, aggressive U.S. rate-hike bets, ongoing lockdowns in China and a batch of poor economic reading from major nations has led to slowdown concerns and weighed on industrial metals.
“Aluminum prices are under significant pressure from a strong US dollar, demand loss from Chinese end-use sectors and poor investor sentiment towards the metals complex,” Fitch Solutions said in a note. — Reuters
