MELBOURNE/BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Copper slipped on
Wednesday as the dollar picked up from a three-month low it hit,
after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he is in
"no rush to make a judgment" about further changes to interest
rates.
The metal recorded its highest close since July in the
previous session and is still not far off the $6,500 a tonne
mark as low inventories remained in focus.
Available copper stocks MCU-STOCKS in warehouses monitored
by the London Metal Exchange have tumbled to less than 30,000
tonnes from more than 130,000 tonnes in mid January, reaching
the lowest level since mid 2005.
Citing LME data that showed speculators had increased their
bullish bets on LME copper by 3,735 net long positions to
31,665, ANZ said "the recent improvement in sentiment amid the
easing trade tension has seen investors become more bullish on
the red metal."
FUNDAMENTALS
* COPPER: LME copper edged down 0.3 percent to
$6,475 a tonne by 0503 GMT, after closing up 0.2 percent in the
previous session. The most traded April contract on the Shanghai
Futures Exchange copper was up 0.1 percent at 50,210
yuan ($7,502.76) a tonne by the end of the morning.
* COPPER: Vedanta Ltd is selling down copper
concentrate stocks from its Sterlite smelter in southern India,
looking to cut costs at the plant ordered permanently shut in
May..
* M&A: Africa-focused explorer Nzuri Copper Ltd has
received a A$109.5 million ($78.64 million) takeover bid from a
unit of China's Chengtun Mining.
* CME GLITCH: U.S. exchange operator CME Group said
on Wednesday operations on its CME Globex platform had returned
to normal after it had to halt all trading due to technical
issues.
* OTHER METALS: Aluminium rose 0.3 percent and
nickel was little changed, while all other LME metals
were down 0.2-0.3 percent.
* ALUMINIUM: Glencore has lodged a complaint with the LME
about the company's inability to take speedy delivery of
aluminium from warehouses owned by ISTIM UK in Port Klang,
Malaysia.
