By Bloomberg News March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Copper advanced for a second day in Asian trading as a gain in U.S. equities improved demand prospects for the industrial metal. The three-month delivery contract on the London Metal Exchange rose as much as 0.4 percent to $7,480 a metric ton and traded at $7,470 by 9:46 a.m. in Shanghai. June copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange increased as much as 1 percent to 60,100 yuan ($8,804) a ton before trading at 59,940 yuan. U.S. stocks rose yesterday after the House of Representatives passed a bill overhauling the health-care industry. The country is the world’s second-largest copper consumer after China. “For copper to go out of its trading range, we need to see consumption patterns from the West,” Zhu Mingyuan, an analyst at Xinguolian Futures Co., said from Shanghai. Global production of copper, used in homes and power grids, gained 0.7 percent in 2009 from a year ago to 18.35 million tons, according to International Copper Study Group. Global usage declined 0.1 percent to 17.99 million tons, the group said in a report yesterday. Aluminum was 0.2 percent higher at $2,260 a ton in London, zinc rose 0.6 percent to $2,290 a ton, lead rose 1.1 percent to $2,189 a ton, and nickel increased 0.1 percent to $22,300. Tin was yet to trade as of 9:54 a.m. in Shanghai. --Li Xiaowei. Editors: Richard Dobson, Matthew Oakley. To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story: Li Xiaowei in Shanghai at Xli12@bloomberg.net

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