London copper turned south on Friday, after a report showing industrial production in China slowed in November dented demand prospects for the metal that is facing a 15 per cent loss this year.

Fundamentals

London Metal Exchange copper fell 0.4 per cent to $6,132 a tonne by 0306 GMT, erasing small gains from the previous session, and was set to end the week little changed. Prices are set to drop 15 per cent this year, the first fall since 2015 when prices declined by a quarter to below $5,000.

Shanghai Futures Exchange copper eased by 0.2 per cent to 49,080 yuan ($7,128) a tonne. Open interest in the contract is the lowest in 22 months, signalling a lack of conviction over price direction as the year draws to a close.

China's November retail sales grew at the weakest pace since 2003 and industrial output rose the least in nearly three years as domestic demand softened further, underlining rising risks to the economy as China works to defuse a trade dispute with the United States.

China is on track to hit its 2018 GDP growth target of around 6.5 per cent, but the economy faces more external uncertainties next year, a spokesman of China's statistics bureau said on Friday.

Japanese business confidence and capital expenditure plans held steady from three months ago, a closely-watched central bank survey showed, a sign companies weren't significantly worried about escalating trade frictions and global growth concerns.

China's aluminium production rose by 19.2 per cent to 2.82 million tonnes in November from a year earlier, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday. SHFE aluminium prices have trended down by 10 per cent since late December to near a two-year low.

Asian shares tumbled on Friday after China reported a set of weak data, fanning fresh worries of a sharp slowdown in the world's second-biggest economy and leaving investors fretting over the wider impact of a yet unresolved Sino-US trade dispute.

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