950819

Copper

futures

surge

NEW YORK: Comex copper moved higher in afternoon trading to end the day with the highest close for the active September contract.

"We had a little shortcovering rally at the end," said a floor source. "We tried to get the market beneath 140.75 cents a lb, but it stuck above it."

The market traded below yesterday's close in early trading because of profit-taking following this week's rally which pushed September to new contract highs, a trader said.

September closed at 142.05 cents a lb, up 0.75 cent, traded 142.35 to 140.75 cents a lb. Volume was an estimated 7,000 lots compared to yesterday's official 12,388 lots.

Estimated switches to December were high at 1,080 as the rollover to gathers pace. December closed at 137.80 cents a lb, up 1.10 cents.

Merrill Lynch's William O'Neill said the weekly charts for Comex copper look quite good. "We are poised for additional gains in the coming weeks," he said.-Reuter