Copper ends week up on dollar slump, China bets

LONDON — Copper rose on Friday and ended the week with a gain of more than 2% thanks to dollar weakness and receding worries over China’s economy, while zinc surged more than 3% amid stock draws.

Stock markets in top metals consumer China ended the week higher, snapping a five-week losing streak as soothing regulatory comments and a central bank cash injection offset worries about growth.

The dollar was on track for its worst week since August, having given up almost all the gains made since Donald Trump was elected US president last year.

“Doubts on the China ( growth) front have been fading for the past week but increasing on the US front and that’s constraining the upside,” said Nitesh Shah, commodity strategist at ETF Securities.

“I see metals treading water for the next few weeks, but thereafter they are likely to increase ( assuming) this negative sentiment from the US fades. In a year of political change in China things aren’t going to be allowed to fall off a cliff.”

London Metal Exchange ( LME) copper ended up 1.80% at $ 5,682 a ton. Leading base metal price gains, zinc closed up 3.30% at $ 2,616 a ton, its strongest weekly gain in nine weeks. World stocks headed for their first weekly fall in five as uproar over Mr. Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey and his campaign’s alleged ties with Russia prompted uncertainty about his ability to push through his economic policies any time soon.

Copper stocks in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.70% from last Friday to 196,358 tons.

Premiums for zinc in China jumped by $10 to $155 a ton, the highest in nearly three years, as the gap between local and global prices turned favorable for imports.

China is likely to step up imports of refined zinc from this month, industry sources said, as dwindling global supplies of concentrate hit local output of the metal.

LME data showed ‘on-warrant’ or available zinc stocks fell to 170,200 tons, their lowest since October 2008. Zinc stocks in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 9.50% from last Friday to 91,749 tons.

Lead stocks in China have surged above 80,000 tons to the highest since March 2014.

The global refined nickel market swung into a small surplus in March after an increase in production outpaced steady global demand, industry data showed.