* Equities rise, arbitrage buying support * Some Chinese aluminium smelters plan to idle output * Coming up: Chicago Fed May Nat'l Activity Index; 1230 GMT (Recasts, updates prices and comments, previous SHANGHAI) By Humeyra Pamuk LONDON, June 28 (Reuters) - Copper climbed towards its highest in almost a month on Monday as equity markets rose while traders awaited for key U.S. macroeconomic data for more clues about the strength of the global economic recovery. Traders said clarification on an overhaul of financial regulations in the United States, arbitrage between London copper and Shanghai as well as fund activity related to investment valuations as month-end approaches have also helped keep prices firm. Copper CMCU3 for three months delivery on the London Metal Exchange rose to $6,855 a tonne by 0923 GMT, after touching $6,873 a tonne earlier and versus $6,760 a tonne on Friday, when a short-covering rally drove the metal, used in construction, to $6,875 a tonne, its highest in almost a month. "The markets on Friday improved and we started to see some late rallies in metals. It looks like that is continuing today," said analyst Daniel Brebner at Deutsche Bank. "There's better clarification in terms of U.S. financial regulation that came out of Friday and I think that's helping to ease the sense of risk aversion there," he said. In the United States, lawmakers hammered out a historic overhaul of financial regulations on Friday, which would force banks to spin off commodity and energy swaps trading operations. [ID:nFINREG] European shares bounced back in morning trade on Monday, snapping a four-session losing run, with financials featuring among the gainers as the G20 countries agreed to allow more time for banks to adopt new capital rules. [.EU] [MKTS/GLOB] Euro remained under pressure but the dollar .DXY reversed earlier gains to trade in negative territory, another reason boosted metals as a weaker dollar made them cheaper for non-U.S. currency holders. [FRX/] STRONG VOLUMES "We see good volumes in copper, there's good arbitrage buying; buying the LME and selling Shanghai," said analyst Robin Bhar at Credit Agricole. Shanghai copper's premium over London shrank rapidly to 62 yuan from 415 yuan at Friday's close. More than 4,600 lots of copper had gone though the LME by Shanghai's close, greater than what typically trades during the entire Asian day. For a graphic on Shanghai-LME arbitrage, click: here "We've got some U.S. economic data, the market will be eyeing those to see how recovery is holding up going forward." U.S. personal spending data and Federal Reserve of Chicago National Activity index due at 1230 GMT will be key for markets, which showed little reaction a Group of 20 leaders' summit where countries agreed to take different paths to cutting budget deficits. [ID:nN26228300] LME aluminium CMAL3 gained $24 to $2,020 a tonne while aluminium smelters in China's Henan province planned to idle 700,000 tonnes of annual production capacity by early July on low prices and high costs in the world's biggest manufacturer of the metal. [ID:nSGE65R082] Analysts did not directly attribute price to the news. "It's notoriously difficult to track," said Bhar. "It's not so much what Chinese say...pay close attention to what they do. The market would await confirmation," he said. "It could enable prices to consolidate here, not drop further, I don't really see it rallying prices," he said. Zinc CMZN3 was at $1,888 a tonne from $1,875 while lead was at $1,853 from $1,815. Tin MSN3 was at $18,165 from $18,125. Nickel CMNI3 as last bid at $20,175 a tonne compared with $19,750 and after hitting a one-week high of $20,197 a tonne earlier. Metal Prices at 0920 GMT Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2009 Ytd Pct move COMEX Cu 309.35 -0.20 -0.06 334.65 -7.56 LME Alum 2015.00 19.00 +0.95 2230.00 -9.64 LME Cu 6853.00 93.00 +1.38 7375.00 -7.08 LME Lead 1850.00 35.00 +1.93 2432.00 -23.93 LME Nickel 20115.00 715.00 +3.69 18525.00 8.58 LME Tin 18050.00 -75.00 -0.41 16950.00 6.49 LME Zinc 1880.00 5.00 +0.27 2560.00 -26.56 SHFE Alu 14915.00 85.00 +0.57 17160.00 -13.08 SHFE Cu* 53960.00 780.00 +1.47 59900.00 -9.92 SHFE Zin 15365.00 355.00 +2.37 21195.00 -27.51 ** Benchmark month for COMEX copper * 3rd contract month for SHFE AL, CU and ZN SHFE ZN began trading on 26/3/07 (Addditional reporting by Rujun Shen in Shanghai, Editing by Keiron Henderson)

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