SINGAPORE, April 9 (Reuters) - Shanghai copper futures rose
almost 3 percent on Thursday to a five-month high, chasing a
recovery in London futures on Wednesday underpinned by short
covering ahead of a four-day long weekend.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Benchmark third month Shanghai copper SCFc3 rose 1,040
yuan to 36,830 yuan at 0104 GMT. Prices earlier hit a
five-month high of 36,860 yuan, spurred by a turnaround in
London metal, which dipped to $4,277 on Wednesday before
recovering to close half a percent up.
* Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange MCU3
fell $15 to $4,385, holding not far from Monday's peak of
$4,459, its highest level since late October.
* Investors are squaring positions ahead of the four-day
Easter holiday in the United Kingdom, which traders said could
give a little lift to prices due to short covering.
* Shanghai will continue trading on Good Friday and Easter
Monday.
* Cancelled warrants remained steady at around 60,000
tonnes, up 140 percent from last last week with the ratio of
cancelled metal to the total stock at around 12 percent.
* Aluminium MAL3 drifted lower. LME metal fell $17 to
$1,475, having gained 1.2 percent on Wednesday. Shanghai
futures SAFc3 rose 1.4 percent to 13,035 yuan.
* Stocks hit an all-time high after another 35,150 tonnes
of metal landed in warehouses, driving inventories to 3.55
million tonnes.
* Metal is leaving warehouses -- 7,750 tonnes was delivered
out -- but this is being overwhelmed by inflows. With cancelled
warrants rising to 94,950 tonnes versus 98,200 at the end of
last week, material is expected to continue to leave.
<0#MAL-STX>
MARKETS NEWS
* U.S. stocks snapped a two-day slide on Wednesday on news
the government is shoring up life insurers and optimism about
consumer spending, giving Tokyo shares .N225 a 0.82 percent
lift at the open. [.T] [.N]
* Oil prices CLc1 rose 1.4 percent on Thursday, defying
modest gains in the dollar EUR= while gold XAU= held
steady.
DATA EVENTS
* The following data is expected on Thursday: ECON
- The ECB publishes its monthly Bulletin. (0800 GMT)
- German industrial output for February (1000 GMT)
- The Bank of England policy decision. (1100 GMT)
- U.S. trade data for February (1230 GMT)
- Weekly US jobless claims (1230 GMT)
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Base metals prices at 0103 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg Day ago pct MA 30
LME copper $4,385.00 -$15.00 -0.34% +0.14% $3,859
LME alum $1,475.00 -$17.00 -1.14% +0.00% $1,388
LME zinc $1,360.00 -$10.00 -0.73% +0.37% $1,251
ShFE copper 36,830 1040 +2.91% +2.11% 31,434
ShFE alum 13,035 175 +1.36% -0.65% 12,269
ShFE zinc 12,090 245 +2.07% -1.31% 11,071
Currencies
Euro/dlr $1.324 -$0.003 -0.20% -1.24%
Dlr/yuan 6.835 -0.002 -0.02% +0.00%
(Editing by Michael Urquhart)
