(Updates prices, adds details and quotes)
HANOI, April 29 (Reuters) – London copper prices inched closer towards an important psychological level of $10,000 on Thursday, as a weaker U.S. dollar made the greenback-priced metal cheaper to holders of other currencies.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 1.1% at $9,980 a tonne by 0632 GMT, having risen to as high as $9,999.50 a tonne earlier in the session, only 50 cents off the key $10,000 resistance level last hit in February 2011.
“(Copper is) supported by a weaker dollar and dovish comments from the Federal Reserve,” said commodities broker Anna Stablum of Marex Spectron in a note.
The dollar was pinned near nine-week lows as a doggedly dovish outlook from the Fed and bold spending plans from the White House gave a green light for the global reflation trade.
The most-traded June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange hit 72,960 yuan ($11,273.53) a tonne, its highest since February 2011.
* Goldman Sachs forecast copper would average $9,675 a tonne in 2021, $11,875 a tonne in 2022 and $12,000 a tonne in 2023.
* However, Yangshan copper premium SMM-CUYP-CN fell to $43 a tonne, its lowest since April 2017, indicating weakening demand from top consumer China as prices have leaped 29% this year.
* ShFE zinc hit its highest since March 2008 of 22,610 yuan a tonne, while LME zinc hit a high level unseen since June 2018 at $2,975.50 a tonne, as bullish sentiment boosted prices of the underperformer of the base metal complex, said a trader.
* ShFE aluminium hit 19,000 yuan a tonne for the first time since February 2010, while LME aluminium climbed to a three-year high of $2,432.50 a tonne on supply cut worries in China to curb emission.
* Global nickel demand is seen rising 11.7% year-on-year to 2.67 million tonnes in 2021, while output is expected to rise 9.2% within the same period to 2.72 million tonnes, the International Nickel Study Group said on Wednesday.
$1 = 6.4718 yuan Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
