By Claudia Carpenter Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Copper climbed in London on renewed prospects a U.S. rescue of automakers would support demand for industrial metals. Aluminum and lead also gained. Copper extended last week’s 4.1 percent gain, the biggest in six weeks, as economic stimulus plans in China and the U.S., the world’s largest users, may also spur demand for cars and homes that contain the metal. The MSCI World Index of equities climbed 1.2 percent as all 10 industry groups gained. “The correlation between base metals with equities is very, very high,” said Frederic Lasserre, global head of commodities research at Societe Generale SA in Paris. “We’ve never seen such a long correlation.” Copper for delivery in three months increased $35, or 1.1 percent, to $3,210 a metric ton as of 10:40 a.m. on the London Metal Exchange. President George W. Bush said his administration may use some of the $700 billion for U.S. banks to save the country’s automakers. Copper dropped 4.4 percent on Dec. 12 after the Senate rejected an automaker rescue, threatening to worsen a U.S. recession that caused slowdowns across the world. Industrial production in China, the world’s largest copper buyer, grew 5.4 percent in November compared with a year earlier, the statistics bureau said today. Economists forecast a 7.2 percent rise, according to a Bloomberg survey. Copper inventories in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange jumped 8,000 tons, or 2.6 percent, to 316,225 tons, the highest since Feb. 17, 2004. They’ve climbed 59 percent this year. “We all expect inventories to trend up,” Lasserre said. “Demand is just falling down.” Aluminum rose $6.50 to $1,506.50 a ton. Tin gained $100 to $11,900 a ton. Nickel dropped $275 to $10,375 a ton and lead jumped $18 to $1,036 a ton. Zinc increased $28 to $1,093 a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Claudia Carpenter in London at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net or ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net

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