LONDON (REUTERS) -
Copper prices rose on Wednesday, echoing gains in equities and the euro, and bouncing back from the previous session's steep falls, but gains looked fragile as concerns about global demand prospects persisted.
A steep fall in U.S. consumer confidence data on Tuesday, concerns over European bank financing and indications of slower growth to come from China kept sentiment weak.
Copper for three-months delivery CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange traded at $6,545 a tonne at 0934 GMT from a close of $6,494 on Tuesday.
"This is a market that from a macro perspective is not looking very robust," said Deutsche Bank analyst Dan Brebner. "The conditions in Europe continue to look highly risky," he said. "There are questions with respect to the U.S. possibly slipping into another recession. Risk aversion is likely to be elevated."
But he said there was some buying interest out of Asia, China specifically, that was creating some support in the market.
Also supporting metals, gains in the euro versus the dollar made dollar-priced commodities cheaper for non-U.S. investors.
Copper prices have followed the euro closely this year, as the single European currency has been viewed as a barometer of investors' confidence in the debt-laden euro zone. [USD/]
Adding to weak sentiment, a New-York based research group lowered its leading economic index for China for April, prompting fears for a slowdown in economic growth.
KAZAKHMYS VIEW
And Kazakhstan-based metals group Kazakhmys PLC (KAZ.L: Quote), one of the world's 10 biggest copper producers, expects copper prices to fall in the wake of an economic growth slowdown in China, the company's head said on Wednesday.
LME copper is headed for a quarterly loss of 16 percent.
Aluminium CMAL3 traded at $1,959 from $1,950. Offering the demand picture some support, stocks of aluminium at LME warehouses have been on the decline, last falling 5,475 tonnes to around 4.4 million tonnes, down from a record above 4.6 million tonnes hit earlier this year.
Zinc CMZN3 was at $1,778 from $ 1,743 and battery material lead CMPB3 was at $1,733 from $1,720.
Tin CMSN3 was unchanged at $17,600 and nickel CMNI3 was at $19,500 from $19,075.
"Spot demand remains fairly robust with fairly steady domestic consumption in China," Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital, said in a note.
But he added that there were several macro economic pressures weighing on the market.
"Base metals failed to make significant progress over the past week," he said.
"Certainly, weak U.S. housing data and downgraded final first quarter GDP numbers as well as slowing copper refined imports in China last month were all disappointing," he added.
"A much weaker than expected U.S. June consumer confidence index only worsened matters yesterday." Investors will eye U.S. Chicago PMI data due at 1345 GMT.
(Additional reporting by Rujun Shen and Edmund Klamann in
Shanghai; Editing by Alison Birrane)
