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Comex copper slips on light local interest

NEW YORK: Comex copper futures falterd to a sluggish close on local traders just pushing it around with interest waning throughout most of the session.

The end of the annual Copper Club festivities coupled with a long holiday weekend also took some of the interest away from dealings.

Active March ended 0.40 cent lower at 83.20 cents a lb, trading 83.10 to 84.10 cents. Spot February closed off 0.40 cent at 82.95 cents a lb, while May dropped 0.35 cent to end at 84.30 cents a lb.

"It was basically a range trading affair. There's really nothing new," said William O'Neill, commodity analyst with Merrill Lynch. "The volumes were extremely light."

Final estimated volumes on Comex reached only 6,000 lots.

Comex copper will be closed in observance of the Presidents Day holiday on Monday, Feb 21. Normal trading hours will resume Tuesday.

On a technical basis, near-term support for the March contract is still sitting around 82.00 cents with resistance up around 85.20 cents.

"There's good support around 82.00 cents and the market held there every time," said O'Neill. "That's the level to look at next week but we could see copper lull around in a range for a little while."

In other news, Zambia on Friday sold 30 percent of its mining industry to a foreign consortium in a move to ease some of the burden from the country's embattled economy.

Zambia has great mineral wealth, but poor management and lack of capital investment slashed copper output to 260,000 tonnes in 1999 from a peak of 700,000 in the 1970s.

On the London Metal Exchange, three-months copper moved around in stagnant trading to end the day unchanged at $1,844 a tonne. Short covering propped prices earlier but interest dropped off causing prices to drift lower.

LME analysts were looking for a close above $1,860 to push prices further upward but the market continues to test the downside.

LME copper stocks were down 1,875 tonnes to 794,975 tonnes on Friday while Comex stocks were up 24 short tons at 95,025 tons on Thursday.-Reuters