(18/04) Copper futures tumble for 3rd day straight

April 18, 2011

Copper prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange continued to tumble recording the third straight day of losses.

The most active June copper contract fell about 1% to CNY 71,150 per tonne at the close of trading. The contract opened Thursday morning down 0.7% from Wednesday's settlement after prices continued to fall in international markets.

Analysts said that the decline tracked copper futures on the London Metals Exchange during the previous session. The 3 month LME copper contract stood at USD 9,469 per tonne when the SHFE closed in Shanghai. The contract had been trading at USD 9,675 per tonne when the SHFE closed Wednesday.

Mr Yin Chuanxiang an analyst for Jin Yuan Futures said that the market remained concerned about US investment bank Goldman Sachs' recent bet that copper prices will fall.

Mr Yin said that nonetheless, the price of copper stayed within recent trading bounds. So I am optimistic about the price in the short term. Copper on the Changjiang Nonferrous Metals Trading Market, a major spot metals market in Shanghai traded Thursday at an average price of CNY 71,575 per tonne down CNY 375 from the previous day.