Copper climbs strongly as markets get bullish

The price of copper jumped strongly on Wednesday in London, as investors have started to be more bullish on commodities across the board, driven by better prospects out of China.

Spot copper closed 2.63% higher at US$4,938.50/t (US$2.240/lb) on the London Metal Exchange from Tuesday's US$4,812/t, according to Chilean state copper commission Cochilco.

"Copper briefly neared the US$5,000 per ton mark and temporarily exceeded the technically important 200-day moving average," Commerzbank said in a note.

The German bank said: "The technical outlook for most other metals has also brightened considerably, which is likely to lend further support to the price upswing. Speculative financial investors also appear to be more convinced again that metal prices will rise.

"In our opinion, metal prices should be well-supported in the medium to long term by the expected production cuts."

Aluminum closed 2.1% higher on Wednesday at US$1,598/t and lead rose 2.6% to US$1,773.50/t, while nickel was up 1.6% at US$9,215/t. Zinc rose 0.9% to US$1,918.50/t, tin was 1.3% higher at US$17,330/t and molybdenum was steady at US$12,300/t.

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