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Comex copper ends down amid deflated interest

NEW YORK: Comex copper futures took a stab at gaining some positive ground but lost the battle early as interest waned and light local selling took over, prodding prices to close down.

Active March ended 0.30 cent lower at 84.35 cents a lb after trading 84.20 to 85.10 cents. Spot January slipped 0.15 to 83.80 cents.

"It was stuck in a non-descript range," said Scott Meyers, technical analyst with Pioneer Futures. Traders agreed, saying that most action was confined to narrow sideways trading. "Everything is rangebound," commented one broker.

Funds are still top-heavy with long positions prevailing and selling at the higher end of the range keeping prices steadily under the 86.00 cent level. Market participants say that significant trade buying is needed to give the market a boost.

The market rallied from its 83.30 cent settlement on Dec 21 to 86.30 cents on Dec 30, while selling at the top of the range is keeping prices within a 83.90 to 86.40 cent range.

Key resistance is sitting at 85.70/85.80 cents with the greatest resistance at 86.40. Support is pegged at around 83.80 and 84.00 cents.

London trading managed to hold onto light gains, closing at $1,859 a tonne. The market lacked any impetus to make significant inroads despite bouncing up from its $1,850 low.

Final volumes were estimated at 9,000 contracts. Final volumes on Monday were estimated at 11,000 contracts, compared with final volumes Friday estimated at 13,000.

LME warehouse stocks were down 525 tonnes at 787,250 tonnes in Tuesday's report. Comex inventories on Monday were up 453 short tons at 93,607 tons.

The nine-day relative strength index for March copper was flirting with oversold conditions to close at 37, compared with 42 on Monday.

Technical analysts usually interpret an RSI reading at 70 or higher as indicating overbought conditions and a reading at 30 or lower as oversold.-Reuters