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Copper slips on need worries, lead drops as stocks jump

Copper prices pulled back further from an 11month peak on Wednesday on fret about need in leading metals customer China while lead slumped after a. sharp increase in stocks.

3 month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME). dropped 0.5% to $8,931 a metric heap by 1715 GMT after. falling by 1.2% in the previous session.

U.S. Comex copper futures fell 0.6% to $4.05 a pound.

LME copper prices spiked to a peak of $9,025.50 a lot on. Monday, the highest since April last year, after an unusual. agreement by China's copper smelters last week to cut output.

However investors are stressed over China's distressed and. debt-laden property sector, which is normally a crucial consumer of. commercial metals.

There's not much genuine need and they have not really. attended to the residential or commercial property sector yet, so that's weighing on the. market, Robert Montefusco at broker Sucden Financial said.

Likewise dampening the market was a stronger dollar index. ahead of a Federal Reserve conference that financiers expect could. send out hawkish signals about the timing and extent of any future. rates of interest cuts.

A firmer dollar makes products priced in the U.S. currency more costly for purchasers utilizing other currencies.

Lead dropped 1.3% to $2,065.50 a ton after LME. stocks skyrocketed by 67,350 heaps or 34% to the highest since. March 2013, highlighting excess supply in the market.

Macquarie expects a surplus in the global lead market of. 76,000 lots this year and 138,000 loads in 2025.

Montefusco said investors were purchasing choices with a strike. price of $2,000, wishing to benefit from additional losses.

In Shanghai, nickel and tin prices decreased as financiers. considered more mining output from primary producer Indonesia after the. nation said it will accelerate its approval procedure.

A senior Indonesian mining ministry authorities said the. country had provided production quotas of 152.62 million tons of. nickel ore and 44,481.63 lots of tin up until now this year, and was. working to speed up the approval process.

The postponed issuance had actually stimulated fears of supply tightness,. supporting prices over the previous couple of months.

On the LME, nickel gained 1% to $17,560, aluminium. added 0.3% to $2,275.50, zinc increased 0.2% to $2,510. and tin shed 0.6% to $27,275.

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(source: Reuters)