Copper prices boosted by stimulus plans, US data

The most-traded copper contract for delivery in July closed at 46,690 yuan ($7,515.91) per ton Friday on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, up 0.78 percent from Thursday, and up 0.76 percent week-on-week. The trading volume fell by 159,442 lots compared to Thursday's 541,380 lots.

The rise in copper futures Friday was partly because investors were expecting good results from US nonfarm payrolls data for March, which was due to be released on Friday night, according to a report Friday by London-based metal information provider Metal Bulletin (MB). There were also high hopes for new economic stimulus measures in Europe and China, the report said.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced Wednesday that the central government would extend tax cut policies for small enterprises. He also said the pace of construction of affordable housing would be speeded up and that there would be more spending on railway construction, according to local media reports.

But some analysts said the stimulus measures would have a limited effect on the copper market. "The concern over the Chinese economic downturn has offset the positive impact brought by the stimulus measures," Sun Xiaoqin, a researcher at Dongguan-based Hualian Futures Co, wrote in a research note on Thursday.

The problem of oversupply is one of the major factors restraining copper prices, Sun said.

The global production of refined copper is expected to exceed demand by about 400,000 tons in 2014, the Lisbon-based International Copper Study Group (ICSG) said after a meeting in Lisbon, Portugal on Thursday.

The ICSG also predicted that the global output of refined copper will increase to 23.3 million tons in 2015, up around 4.3 percent year-on-year.

It is unlikely that copper prices will climb in the second quarter, a report by Xinhua News Agency said last week. The demand for copper in some industries such as home appliances might increase in the second quarter, but it won't change the overall downward trend for the copper market in the coming months, the report said.