BEIJING, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Most Shanghai base metals rose
on Thursday, tracking equities after investors saw comments from
the U.S. Federal Reserve chair as a sign the central bank's
interest rate hike cycle is drawing to a close.
Jerome Powell said at a lunch on Wednesday that the Fed's
policy rate is now "just below" estimates of a level that
neither brakes nor boosts a healthy U.S. economy.
Higher interest rates mean higher borrowing costs, which can
reduce economic activity and consumption, and see capital flow
into assets with higher yields than commodities.
Trade uncertainty continues to weigh ahead of a meeting
between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi
Jinping at the G20 summit in Argentina, ANZ wrote in a note.
"Investors will be looking for progress at the Trump-Xi
meeting this weekend, after it was reported that President Trump
is weighing up more tariffs," it said.
FUNDAMENTALS
* COPPER: The most-traded January copper contract on the
Shanghai Futures Exchange had risen 1.3 percent to
49,570 yuan ($7,142.65) a tonne by the end of the morning
session. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange
climbed 0.6 percent to $6,237.50 a tonne, as of 0455 GMT.
* OTHER METALS: Shanghai lead was the next biggest
gainer after copper, adding 0.8 percent, while zinc was
on course to snap a seven-session losing run, rising 0.6
percent.
* VEDANTA: An Indian court-appointed panel said on Wednesday
that there were insufficient grounds to permanently close
Vedanta Ltd's copper smelter and a government
decision to shut it amounted to administrative overreach.
* CHILE: BHP's Spence copper mine was operating normally
again following a union strike announced earlier on Wednesday,
the company said.
* ALUMINIUM: The Russian government could buy up to 50,000
tonnes of aluminium for the state reserve, a government decree
showed on Wednesday, in a move that would support sanctioned
Russian aluminium producer Rusal.
