Most Shanghai base metals rose on Thursday, tracking equities after investors saw comments from the US Federal Reserve chair as a sign the central bank's interest rate hike cycle is drawing to a close. Jerome Powell had said at a lunch on Wednesday that the Fed's policy rate is now “just below” estimates of a level that neither brakes nor boosts a healthy US economy.

Higher interest rates mean higher borrowing costs, which can reduce economic activity and consumption, and see capital flow into assets with higher yields than commodities. Trade uncertainty continues to weigh ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Argentina, ANZ wrote in a note.

“Investors will be looking for progress at the Trump-Xi meeting this weekend, after it was reported that President Trump is weighing up more tariffs,” it said.

The most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange had risen 1.3 per cent to 49,570 yuan ($7,142.65) a tonne by the end of the morning session. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange climbed 0.6 per cent to $6,237.50 a tonne, as of 0455 GMT. Shanghai lead was the next biggest gainer after copper, adding 0.8 per cent, while zinc was on course to snap a seven-session losing run, rising 0.6 per cent.

An Indian court-appointed panel said on Wednesday that there were insufficient grounds to permanently close Vedanta Ltd's copper smelter and a government decision to shut it amounted to administrative overreach. BHP's Spence copper mine was operating normally again following a union strike announced earlier on Wednesday, the company said.

The Russian government could buy up to 50,000 tonnes of aluminium for the state reserve, a government decree showed on Wednesday, in a move that would support sanctioned Russian aluminium producer Rusal.

Related Topics