BEIJING, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Base metals prices rose on
Tuesday, with London copper climbing back above the
$6,000-a-tonne mark, as the dollar slipped, making metals
cheaper for holders of other currencies, while the market
awaited U.S.-China trade talks in Washington.
Copper prices on the London Metal Exchange have fallen by 18
percent from a four-year high touched on June 7 amid concerns a
trade row between the United States and China, which have
slapped billions of dollars in tariffs on each other's goods,
will hit demand for industrial metals.
But Jefferies analyst Timothy Ward wrote in a note that the
"pendulum may have swung too far too fast."
"Sentiment and positioning have shifted so strongly from
these macro forces that the underlying copper story may have
been thrown out with the bath water," he said, adding that the
last time speculative positioning had so many shorts and so few
longs, copper rallied 19 percent over the next three months.
FUNDAMENTALS
* LME COPPER: Three-month copper on the LME edged up
0.3 percent to $6,011.50 a tonne by 0332 GMT, following a 1.1
percent rise in the previous session.
* SHFE COPPER: The most-traded October copper contract on
the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed 0.8 percent to
48,470 yuan ($7,051.21) a tonne by the mid-session interval.
* USD: The dollar index against a basket of six other
currencies fell 0.4 percent to 95.553 after touching 95.440, its
lowest level since Aug. 9.
* VEDANTA: India's environment court said on Monday an
independent judicial committee would decide in about six weeks
whether to allow Vedanta Ltd to reopen its copper
smelter, which was shut by the southern state of Tamil Nadu on
environmental grounds.
* OTHER METALS: ShFE aluminium was the biggest
gainer, rising as much as 2.1 percent to a one-week high of
14,710 yuan a tonne, after a jump in London on Monday. Zinc
added 1.2 percent, while lead and tin
were laggards, losing 0.8 percent and 0.5 percent,
respectively.
* BHP: The world's biggest miner, BHP,,
said on Tuesday its full-year profit jumped 33 percent, helped
mainly by robust oil and base metals prices.
