Copper futures closed higher on the London Metal Exchange, boosted by some solid trade data from top metals consumer China.
The LME's flagship three month copper contract was up 1.1% at USD 6,729 per tonne at the close.
China posted unexpected gains in both exports and imports for April, beating market estimates and adding up to a trade surplus of USD 18.5 billion. Its April copper, copper products imports rose 52.5% on the year to 450,000 tonnes.
Analysts at Commerzbank AG said that Chinese traders have clearly taken advantage once again of the low copper prices the red metal dropped by 10% in price for a time in March, losses that it has only partially been able to recoup in the meantime to buy up material opportunistically.
