LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - Copper edged up on Monday as weak Chinese factory data for April raised expectations that the top metal consumer may embark on further monetary easing, which would underpin demand for metals. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.5 percent to $7,409 a tonne by 1039 GMT, from the previous session when it ended at $7,375, up nearly 2 percent on the week. Copper hit $7,480 last Wednesday, its highest in nearly a month. China's factory output growth was surprisingly muted in April, darkening the outlook for economic recovery and feeding expectations that Beijing may take policy action to support activity. "There are expectations that there may be a bit more easing on the way because that factory data was weaker than expected," said Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar said "That's what is keeping copper in positive territory and it is quite a resilient performance because the dollar moved quite strongly in the last couple of days and hit gold quite significantly, but base metals have held up." A firmer dollar against a basket of currencies pulled gold down more than 1 percent on Monday. A stronger U.S. unit makes dollar-priced commodities costlier for holders of other currencies. IMPROVING DEMAND Physical copper demand has seen an improvement recently, market players said. This was also underlined by a narrowing contango , a discount for the cash price against the three-month price, which fell from almost $40 a tonne in March to around $27.50 on Monday. In another sign of a pick up in demand, stocks of copper in warehouses registered with the LME and with the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) have also started to decline in the last few weeks. "The LME inventories already reached their provisional high back in April. Stocks on the SHFE have also been declining for weeks and last week again. If we simultaneously factor in the huge increase in open interest on the LME, the growing tension on the copper market is literally palpable," Commerzbank said in a research note. Copper stocks in LME-registered warehouses rose by 2,450 tonnes to 606,700 tonnes, data released on Monday showed, but have been declining since hitting a decade-high in April at 621,600 tonnes. But not all this material is readily available for delivery since in the last few months an increasing number of copper market participants have engaged in deals, known as cash as cash-and-carries, which were previously popular mainly in aluminium and zinc. In these deals, which are made profitable by the availability of cheap financing due to low interest rates, traders agree to store their excess metal in long-term rent deals and sell it forward at a higher price due to a healthy forward prices spread. "There are maybe about 600,000 tonnes of copper in LME warehouses but can be can we get hold of it? As physical demand gets stronger I think we'll get some real evidence that a lot of the copper is not really available because is tied up in financing deals and it is stuck behind lengthy queues," Bhar said. Metal Prices at 1040 GMT Comex copper in cents/lb, LME prices in $/T and SHFE prices in yuan/T Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2012 Ytd Pct move COMEX Cu 335.60 0.35 +0.10 365.25 -8.12 LME Alum 1860.50 -11.50 -0.61 2073.00 -10.25 LME Cu 7409.00 34.00 +0.46 7931.00 -6.58 LME Lead 2002.00 8.00 +0.40 2330.00 -14.08 LME Nickel 15415.00 55.00 +0.36 17060.00 -9.64 LME Tin 20863.00 138.00 +0.67 23400.00 -10.84 LME Zinc 1855.00 -4.00 -0.22 2080.00 -10.82 SHFE Alu 14570.00 -45.00 -0.31 15435.00 -5.60 SHFE Cu* 53630.00 440.00 +0.83 57690.00 -7.04 SHFE Zin 14550.00 15.00 +0.10 15625.00 -6.88 ** Benchmark month for COMEX copper * 3rd contract month for SHFE AL, CU and ZN SHFE ZN began trading on 26/3/07

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