Copper futures move up despite lackluster data

Copper futures rose slightly on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) on Friday despite the weak economic data announced by the country's statistics bureau the same day.

The most-traded copper futures for August ended at 47,730 yuan ($7684.53) per ton on the SHFE on Friday, up 0.57 percent from Thursday.

The market ended the week with a 1.1 percent loss. The trading volume increased by 95,884 lots Friday from Thursday's 249,268 lots.

Copper futures on SHFE began the week at a low level due to persistent investor concerns over the negative impact of the investigation into financing fraud in the Qingdao Port, Reuters reported last week. Investors were worried that the ongoing investigation could squeeze financing and reduce traders' buying interest in copper.

In addition, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Friday that China's property investment rose by 14.7 percent year-on-year in the first five months, which was the slowest pace of growth since August 2009. Also, the NBS data showed on Friday that China's fixed-assets investment grew by 17.2 percent from January to May, the lowest growth rate since December 2001. The declining property investment highlighted the downward pressures on the economy in the short term, Shanghai Securities News reported Thursday.

However, some analysts think that the negative impact of the investigation in the Qingdao Port will gradually decrease and investors are taking a wait-and-see stance, and that the copper market is expected to become stable in the future, according to a report by China Securities Journal Thursday.