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Speculative frenzy moves copper to records above $11,000/ T.

Copper rose to record highs on Monday as a current rally triggered by brief covering created momentum for speculators and funds to bet on greater rates of the metal utilized in the power and building industries.

Short positions can be manufacturers hedging their output, however often they are bets on lower rates made by traders and funds.

Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME). was up 2.1% at $10,897 a metric lot at 1604 GMT after peaking at. $ 11,104.5, a gain of 30% since the start of the year.

It's a mix of brief covering and funds jumping on. the bandwagon. It's a similar scenario on COMEX, a copper. trader stated, adding that a reasonable quantity of the brief covering. was by Chinese players.

Producer selling seems to have actually relaxed the market a little,. he added.

COMEX copper rates likewise struck an all-time high of $5.1985 a. pound, or $11,460 a ton, because of a brief capture, where celebrations. are required to buy back their short positions at a loss or. provide physical copper to close them out.

Sentiment in the copper market is bullish, shown by the. speculative buying seen in the market, analysts at ING said. Short-term fundamentals stay an issue, especially when it. comes to China.

Weak point in China can be seen in inventories in warehouses. kept track of by the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE), which stand. at 290,376 loads, near the four-year highs struck last month,. compared with 33,130 heaps at the start of the year.

Over the longer term however expectations of more powerful. cyclical usage, speeding up need from the electrical. automobile sector and brand-new applications such as data centres for. artificial intelligence are expected to underpin greater copper. costs.

It's been tough for financiers to price future demand. from the energy shift, lack of supply growth and artificial. intelligence due to the fact that of the dangers from China home and high. rate of interest, said Citi expert Max Layton.

That's altered over the last couple of months, individuals are not as. concerned about the cyclical side ... they see the bottoming in. worldwide PMIs (studies of purchasing supervisors in production).

In other metals, aluminium was up 0.4% at $2,622,. zinc increased 2.8% to $3,115, lead included 2.4% to. $ 2,339, tin increased 0.5% to $34,410 and nickel. climbed up 0.9% to $21,270 a ton.

(source: Reuters)