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Copper retreats from two-year high on profit-taking and hedging

Copper rates pulled back on Tuesday on profittaking by funds and hedging by producers after a speculationled rally sent out the market to a twoyear high.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 2% to a session low of $9,627 a metric lot before narrowing losses to 1% at $9,726.50 by 1625 GMT.

It touched $9,988 a load on Monday, checking the $10,000. mark. LME copper is still up 9% this month.

Metals prices were rising far too rapidly. The funds are. taking profit and individuals are trying to hedge, said Dan Smith,. head of research study at Amalgamated Metal Trading.

Mining business hedge by selling their production in. advance when prices increase.

Tin plunged as much as 8.9% to $31,400 a ton for. its greatest decrease because June 2022. The soldering metal touched. a 22-month high on Monday and was last trading 6.6% down at. $ 32,200 a heap.

Aluminium, meanwhile, fell 3.7% to $2,572 a load.

The LME aluminium cash rate traded at a premium of $27 a. heap to the three-month price, a condition called backwardation. that typically signals tight supply.<< CMAL0-3 >

. Almost 70%, or 345,300 loads, of aluminium stocks in. warehouses monitored by the LME are allocated for shipment,. exchange data revealed, with the majority of the cancelled product in. Asia. << MALSTX-TOTAL > We have not>

seen this cash to three-month backwardation in. aluminium for a while. However it is more an artificial tightness. with long and shorts battling to get hold of aluminium, Smith. stated.

Traders could benefit by taking Russian aluminium from the. LME and returning it at a later date to take advantage of current guideline. changes to comply with the latest U.S. and UK sanctions in. action to Russia's intrusion of Ukraine.

LME nickel dropped 3.5% to $19,050 a heap, zinc. shed 1.5% to $2,791.5 and lead was up 0.4% at. $ 2,149.

Cancelled lead warrants recently climbed to 129,650 lots,. or 48% of the overall, the highest level because June 2013. << MPBSTX-TOTAL >.

(source: Reuters)