Copper futures close lower

COPPER futures ended lower on Tuesday amid heightened concerns over a new strain of coronavirus in China that could hit Chinese economic growth, Barclays Bank has said.

According to Barclays bank daily report the world’s biggest consumer of industrial metals was also preparing for its week- long Lunar New Year holiday from January 24.

This has seen many traders closing their positions before taking time off and millions of people travelling, stoking fears of a wider spread of the virus, too weighed on copper prices.

The report says Copper on the London Metal Exchange ended down 1.6 percent at $6,160 a tonne.

Oil prices, the report says, retreated on Tuesday in Asia after trading higher over the weekend as production was hit in Iraq and Libya.

“International Brent Oil Futures dropped by 0.6 percent to $64.83,” the report says.

The report says Gold prices slipped on Wednesday as the dollar firmed and investors played down any immediate impact on the global economy from the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China.

“Spot gold fell 0.4 percent to $1,551.13 per ounce. On Tuesday, prices declined as much as one percent to their lowest since Jan. 15 at $1,545.96,” the report says.

And the report says the Kwacha remained unchanged against the dollar on Tuesday as dollar demand was offset by decent supply from various corporates on the day.

The report says the local unit was quoted at K14.600/14.650 per dollar on the bid and offer respectively where it traded flat throughout the day until closure in a matched market.

“Near term, the local unit is anticipated to trade in a tight band with a bias to post slight gains on the back of continued corporate month end dollar conversions,” the report says.

The report says the liquidity levels in the local markets in Tuesdays trading session pushed up further from K890.20 million to K929.98 million, similarly the volumes of funds traded on the interbank increased from K338.00 million to K452.00 million.

“The overnight interbank rate was little changed at 12.55 percent. The local markets remained subdued in yesterday trading session with all yields remaining unchanged,” the report says.