Copper futures slips 0.29% to Rs 678 per kg; speculators cut net long positions

Copper prices traded slightly lower to Rs 677.55 per kg on March 15 as participants increased their short positions as seen by the open interest. The base metals declined 1.67 percent last week on the MCX.

Copper traded in the negative territory after a flat to gap-down start, tracking muted global cues.

The base metal has been trading higher than 5, 50, 100 and 200 days' moving averages but lower than the 20-day moving average on the daily chart. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 52.18 which indicates positive momentum in prices.

LME copper prices ended flat to marginally higher on Friday as investors were cheered by buoyant US economic data and hoped that planned spending on infrastructure would boost metals demand.

Speculators cut their net long US copper positions by 14,284 contracts to 51,222 in the week to March 9, according to the US CFTC data.

Tapan Patel- Senior Analyst (Commodities), HDFC Securities said, “Base metals traded mixed during the week with most of the metals trading under pressure on broad selling in industrial metals in China. Copper prices kept downside limited on supportive fundamentals while Nickel, Zinc and Lead prices ended the week in the red.”

“Copper futures kept firm trading range on supply disruption fears from Chile over potential labour strike. The overall supply deficit concerns have lifted copper prices along with demand growth optimism from the US”, he said.

Patel expects the base metal to trade sideways to lower for the week with MCX Copper support at Rs 670 and resistance at Rs 689.

The US dollar traded firm at 91.81 or up 0.15 percent in the evening session.

MCX METLDEX was up 64 points, or 0.46 percent, at 13,840 at 16:07 hours. The index tracks the real-time performance of key base metals.

In the futures market, copper for March delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 681 and a low of Rs 675.25 per kg on the MCX. So far in the current series, the base metal has touched a low of Rs 585.70 and a high of Rs 737.

Copper delivery for March fell Rs 1.95, or 0.29 percent, to Rs 677.55 per kg at 16:09 hours with a business turnover of 3,294 lots. The same for April contract eased by Rs 0.25, or 0.04 percent to Rs 681.95 per kg with a turnover of 980 lots.

The value of March and April’s contracts traded so far is Rs 782.79 crore and Rs 55.86 crore, respectively.

Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities said, “Technically, MCX Copper March holds a resistance near Rs 685 levels and below Rs 680 will continue sideways to marginal downside momentum up Rs 675 - Rs 671 levels. Resistance is at Rs 683 - Rs 687 levels.”

At 10:41 (GMT), the red metal price was marginally down by 0.08 percent at $9,122.50 per tonne in London.

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