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LME copper slumps again,

outlook for others mixed

LONDON: Copper prices slumped for a third succesive day, hit by overwhelmingly bearish sentiment and falling to their lowest in more than five weeks.

Other London Metal Exchange (LME) base metals ended mixed, reacting to their own fundamentals, traders added.

"We have been hitting sell stops all the way down on copper," said Martin Squires of Rudolf Wolff. "There has been some short-covering around the lows, though."

Three month copper futures ended the afternoon kerb at $2,466 a tonne, $23 down from Tuesday's afternoon kerb close. They have tumbled $78, or three percent, since last Friday.

Prices bottomed at $2,465, just above key technical support pegged at $2,456/57. Any break below this level could prompt a test of the 1996 nadir at $2,440.

Short term resistance was pegged at $2,485/90 and $2,543.

The April LME options declaration at around 1030 GMT passed smoothly, with the bulk of any hedging on the futures market done on Tuesday. In the event, both call and put options at the $2,500 strike price were partially declared.

Aluminium fell earlier in the day under fund selling, but trade buying emerged on the dips to support values.

The market ended just $1.5 lower at $1,636.5.

The market hit a three-week low of $1,624 at one stage.

"We have seen trade buying starting to some in on reasonable dips in most metals," Squires said.

Lead and tin prices rose on Wednesday, both underpinned by low stocks. Lead rose $5 to $786 and tin by $55 to $6,415.

Any further weakness in lead prices was likely to provide good buying opportunities near term, traders said. Global stocks were well below the critical 5 weeks' consumption ratio, and LME stocks should start to fall again soon, said one analyst.

Charts were mixed, with a steep falling trendline broken on the upside but the 10-day moving average moving sharply lower.

Zinc and nickel were weighed down by copper's weakness.

Zinc fell $4 to $1,067 after touching a four-week low of $1,064 at one stage.

Nickel ended $15 weaker at $8,085.

Alloy was last quoted at $1,400/10 from $1,405/15.-Reuter