Copper prices fall in a session with few operations

The copper prices they fell slightly on Friday, affected by poor holiday operations and concerns about weak physical demand.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.1% at $ 9,603 a tonne at 10:35 GMT, after four consecutive days of gains that took it to a high of two weeks on Thursday.

“Metal prices may have rebounded from recent losses, but that’s in the world of futures trading as the physical world is very quiet and demand for metals is falling.“Said Malcolm Freeman of Kingdom Futures.

China’s Yangshan copper premium for refined copper imports has fallen to US $ 90 a ton from US $ 104 a week ago.

The February copper contract, the most traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, ended the session down 0.3% to 69,750 yuan (US $ 10,950.62) a ton, after a three-day rally.

“Overall, I don’t expect a lot of excitement at the end of the year unless important news or events are reported, such as omicron news that exceed our expectations.”Said Wong Min Hao of Phillip Futures in Singapore.

Health experts have warned that the battle against the omicron variant of the coronavirus is far from over, despite the fact that two pharmaceutical companies said their vaccines protect against it and signs that it carries a lower risk of hospitalization.

MMG Ltd’s Las Bambas copper mine said a temporary truce to lift a month-long blockade affecting an important road for copper transportation in Peru does not guarantee the conditions to resume operations on a sustained basis.

With information from Reuters