LONDON: Copper dipped on Wednesday, giving up some gains from the previous session when it hit two-week highs, as some traders locked in profits and other investors remain concerned about sluggish demand. Aluminium and other metals, however, added to Tuesday's gains, helped by improving trade data from top metals consumer China. "The macro mood at the moment is 'glass half empty' - the overall economic outlook remains very much a mixed picture," said analyst Duncan Hobbs at Macquarie in London. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange shed 0.25 percent to $7,606 a tonne by 0910 GMT, after rising 2.4 percent in the previous session on short-covering, traders said. Copper hit its highest in almost two weeks on Tuesday at $7,645.25 a tonne, extending a rebound from an 8-month low near $7,330 last week. Prices are still down more than 4 percent on the year. Also weighing on the market was downbeat sentiment so far at the CESCO/CRU World Copper Conference in Santiago, the world's biggest gathering dedicated to the red metal. "My sense of feedback from colleagues who are there is that the mood on the market is certainly on the soft side... even the Chilean strike action does not appear to be worrying people in the same way it might have done a year or two ago. " Workers staged a 24-hour strike at world No. 1 copper producer Codelco on Tuesday. Copper's losses were held in check after China's trade data was taken as a sign that domestic demand may be picking up and reinforced views of a gradual recovery under way in the world's second-largest economy. "We've probably seen the lows in many of the base metals for now," said economist Alexandra Knight of National Australia Bank in Melbourne. "We're still seeing a modest recovery in the US and we expect economic growth in China to extend over the first half, so there's plenty of support for demand," she added.

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