Copper prices advanced on Monday as China, the world's biggest consumer of the red metal, announced rate cuts to cushion the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

China cut its benchmark one-year loan prime rate (LPR) by 20 basis points (bps) to 3.85%, while the five-year LPR was cut by 10 bps to 4.65%, in line with market expectations.

The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was up 0.3% at 42,310 yuan ($5,976.66) a tonne, as of 0150 GMT, while benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose 0.1% to $5,213.50 a tonne.

China's economy shrank 6.8% in the first quarter from a year earlier, the first contraction since at least 1992 when the government began publishing quarterly records.

FUNDAMENTALS

* OTHER PRICES: LME aluminium rose 0.4% to $1,513 a tonne, nickel advanced 0.2% to $12,070 a tonne, while zinc fell 0.6% to $1,947 a tonne. In Shanghai, aluminium rose 0.9% to 12,360 yuan a tonne, nickel climbed 1.9% to 99,580 yuan a tonne while lead dropped 1.3% to 13,590 yuan a tonne.

* VALE NICKEL : Brazilian miner Vale SA said it slashed its 2020 output forecasts for copper to 360,000-380,000 tonnes from 400,000 tonnes and for nickel to 180,000-195,000 tonnes from 200,000-210,000 previously.

* NICKEL : Dwindling nickel ore supply from the Philippines amid measures to contain the new coronavirus has boosted nickel prices in China despite weak demand from the stainless steel sector.

* ZINC : Collapsing demand for zinc caused by the novel coronavirus will swamp supply cuts from major producers Peru and India this year and leave the market with a massive surplus that will weigh on prices of the material used to galvanise steel.

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