Domestic copper futures held steady Thursday as the market remained cautious ahead of the release of China's second quarter GDP figures.
The most traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) finished even with Wednesday's closing price. The contract opened 0.25 percent above Wednesday's close, trailing overnight gains on the London Metal Exchange (LME).
The three-month copper contract rose about 0.7 percent after the domestic markets closed Wednesday, though it took a turn downward Thursday after the minutes from the US Federal Reserve's most recent policy committee meeting presented a mixed view about further monetary easing.
Copper futures have rallied in the past when the market anticipated that the Fed might introduce a new monetary stimulus program on the theory that stimulus would bolster demand for industrial metals.
Sentiment in China, which consumes about 40 percent of the world's copper, has been depressed since the country's refined copper imports during June fell 17.6 percent month-on-month to 346,223 tons.
Analysts from the Australian bank ANZ reported Thursday that Asian financial markets were waiting for key data from China to offer some direction. China's GDP figures are due out Friday, along with monthly data on fixed-asset investment and industrial production.
