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LME base metals move narrowly

LONDON: London Metal Exchange (LME) metals showed little movement in pre-market trading on Wednesday, with prices expected to continue showing weakness, dealers said.

Copper lost $2 to be last quoted at $1,857/60 a tonne at 1100 GMT.

"Copper is moving sideways and looks to be a bit long, it still needs to absorb more selling," a broker said.

Three months aluminium was down $5 at $1,654/56.

"There is consumer buying of both metals, which is keeping them off the lows and providing support," a dealer said.

LME traders AMT said in a report, "We feel that aluminium is getting tired around here and running out of fresh buyers, $1,640 is the number that aluminium needs to hold otherwise weak funds and impatient longs could bail out down to $1,600 in the coming days."

Among other metals, nickel initially looked to be heading to $8,000, but then drifted back up again.

Three months was last quoted at $8,175/8,200, up $35.

Dealers said support was pegged at the 30-day moving average of $8,141. A failure to hold that level might see prices slip to $8,058.

Zinc was holding above support at $1,200 but looked vulnerable to a fresh shake-out by longs.

Three months was down $5 at $1,205/8 in early trading.

Lead remained stuck under $500 a tonne and was likely to range between $495 and $505.

Tin was weak and down $60 in the pre-market at $5,910/30.

Alloy was unchanged and last quoted at $1,412. Silver was two cents lower at 514/6 cents an ounce.-Reuters