London aluminium prices edged lower on Friday after a 1.3 per cent jump in the previous session, as traders continued to grapple with the fallout from US sanctions on Russian producer Rusal ahead of a two-day holiday in China.
“All of the metals remain within yesterday's ranges as pre-Labour Day weekend positional re-adjustment seems to be the main theme so far today,” broker Marex Spectron said in a note.
Aluminium has lost about 8.2 per cent in London this week, having fallen sharply on Monday and Tuesday after the United States gave American customers of Rusal more time to comply with the sanctions, which were first announced on April 6.
This has left it on course for its biggest weekly drop since August 2011, although it is still up 13.1 per cent in April on the back of Rusal concerns, which would be its best month since September 2010.
Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.4 per cent at $2,265 a tonne by 0717 GMT, having risen by as much as 0.9 per cent earlier in the session.
The most-traded June aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange ended 0.5 per cent higher at 14,480 yuan ($2,283.91) a tonne. It has dropped 3.7 per cent this week, but gained 4.8 percent in April.
Rusal's head of sales, Steve Hodgson, is leaving the company, a source familiar with the matter had said on Thursday.
Copper was trading down 0.5 per cent at $6,928 a tonne on a firm dollar, which makes metals expensive for the holders of other currencies. Shanghai copper closed down 0.3 per cent at 51,560 yuan a tonne.
Chile's Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, had said on Thursday that early contract talks with its workers' union ended without an agreement, setting the stage for legally scheduled negotiations to begin in June.
ShFE will be closed on Monday and Tuesday for the Labour Day holiday in China, the world's top metal consumer.
Asian shares rose on Friday after US equities were buoyed by a rebound in technology stocks, while markets in Seoul were underpinned by optimism as leaders of North and South Korea held their first summit in over a decade.