Copper futures trade steady at Rs 618.60 per kg in evening trade

Copper prices trade flat at Rs 618.60 per kg on January 7 as participants increased their long positions as seen by the open interest. The base metal traded in the green in the evening session after a gap-up open.

Copper prices were getting support from declining inventories at LME and SHFE accredited warehouses and supply concerns from Peru. The three-week-long blockades by locals prevented Peru’s Las Bambas mine export of 189,000 tonnes of copper concentrates. The mine accounts for 2 percent of the global copper supply.

The US dollar trades higher at 89.91, or up 0.46 percent after recouping early losses in the evening session.

Neha Qureshi, Technical Research Analyst at Reliance Securities, said, “LME Copper is trading on a flat note after hitting a 52-week high $8,169.75 levels where it will continue its sideways to marginal upside momentum up to $8,090-$8,140 levels with support placed at $8,030-$7,980 levels.

MCX Copper January holds a resistance near its all-time high Rs 625.35 levels where it is trading on a flat note and could trade in a range of Rs 616-623 levels, she said. Qureshi advises her clients to buy Copper January at Rs 616-616.50 with a stop loss of Rs 614 and a target of Rs 620.

MCX iCOMDEX Base Metal Index was up 16.71 points, or 0.12 percent, at 13,958.24 at 16:34.

In the futures market, copper for January delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 622.20 and a low of Rs 617.85 per kg on the MCX. So far in the current series, the base metal has touched a low of Rs 548 and a high of Rs 625.35.

Copper delivery for January gained Rs 0.65, or 0.11 percent, to Rs 618.60 per kg at 16:35 hours with a business turnover of 4,715 lots. The same for the February contract was higher at Rs 0.80, or 0.13 percent to Rs 619.05 per kg with a turnover of 281 lots.

The value of January and February’s contracts traded so far is Rs 999.05 crore and Rs 32.55 crore, respectively.

At 1109 (GMT), the red metal price gained 0.28 percent quoting at $8,052 per tonne in London.

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