SINGAPORE, Jan 4 (Reuters) – London copper rose more than 1 percent on Friday, recovering from an 18-month low hit in the previous session, although the market is facing its biggest weekly drop in almost two months on worries over slowing growth in top consumer China.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 1.6 percent at $5,828.5 a tonne, as of 0354 GMT, and the most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slid 0.7 percent to 46,900 yuan ($6,833.75) a tonne.
* For the week, LME copper is down 2.8 percent, the biggest weekly decline since early November, while prices in Shanghai slipped 2.6 percent so far this week, the most since mid-August.
* China’s economic growth could fall below 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter as companies face increased difficulties, a central bank magazine said on Wednesday.
* China’s factory activity contracted for the first time in 19 months in December as domestic and export orders weakened further, a private survey showed.
* The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for December fell to 49.7 from 50.2 in November, marking the first contraction since May 2017. Manufacturing is a key source of jobs in China’s economy.
* Mining companies operating in Zambia have failed to show how higher taxes introduced this year will affect their profitability despite objecting to the new framework, a senior government official said on Thursday. * Africa’s second-largest copper producer increased its sliding scale for royalties of 4 to 6 percent by 1.5 percentage points from Jan. 1 and introduced a new 10 percent tax when the price of copper exceeds $7,500 per tonne.
