Reuters reported that copper rose around 1% as investors became more confident that Greece would complete a debt swap to avoid a chaotic default and as a weaker dollar supported base metals. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange traded up 0.83% at USD 8,364 per tonne at 1432 GMT from a close of USD 8,295. Investors welcomed news that major banks and pension funds have thrown their weight behind Greece's bond swap offer to private creditors, making it increasingly likely that the deal will pass and clear the way for a bailout package to avert an immediate default on its debt. The European Central Bank meanwhile kept its benchmark interest rate at 1% earlier although it further reduced its forecast for growth this year, according to new staff forecasts which also raised its outlook for inflation for 2012 to 2013. Meanwhile in the United States, new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, though the data was not enough to change perceptions that the labor market was improving. Mr Dan Smith analyst of Standard Chartered said that "Things are improving from a macro economic perspective and there's lot of problems on the supply side for copper. Physical premiums in Shanghai are moving up. There's nothing coming out of Europe that's going to derail what's a reasonably bullish medium term story for copper. A bit of the good news is in the price already but even given that, it's still a good story for copper." The euro rose against the dollar as Greece's debt restructuring efforts looked to have made some progress. A weaker US currency makes it cheaper for holders of other currencies to buy dollar priced commodities such as base metals.

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