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Copper ends lower

in lackluster session

NEW YORK: COMEX copper settled barely lower after a second lackluster day of trading, as a quiet LME was unable to give any impetus to red metal futures.

"It's pretty much a lack of interest with no games to be played," Richard Hirsch of Deutsche Sharps Pixley Metals said.

Over the medium term, much will hinge on whether an improved economy is enough to hold up copper prices in the face of the additional mined production due on stream over the next few months, Hirsch added.

May copper settled 0.30 cent down at 113.05 cents, traded narrowly between 113.90 and 113.00 cents. Spot April settled at 113.10 cents, down 0.50 cent.-Reuter