METALS-London copper set for weekly gain on easing trade tensions, supply concerns

By Hongmei Li

SINGAPORE, June 6 (Reuters) - London copper ticked up on Friday and was on track to end the week higher, boosted by hopes of an easing in U.S.-China trade tensions and concerns about supply disruptions.

The three-month copper contract on LME CMCU3 gained 0.1% to $9,746 per metric ton as of 0706 GMT. It is up about 2.7% for the week, set to mark its biggest weekly gain since early April.

On Thursday, the market touched its highest since March 31 at $9,809.50.

The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 gained 1% to 78,930 yuan a ton ($10,986) and it is up about 0.5% this week.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a rare leader-to-leader call on Thursday. While they left key issues to further talks, they also invited each other to visit their respective countries.

"Market sentiment was boosted by easing trade tensions, Trump and Xi agreed to more trade talks, after Trump said they cleared up disputes on rare earth exports during a call," according to an ANZ report.

LME copper stocks fell to 138,000 tons, the weakest level in nearly a year and are down by nearly half so far this year MCUSTX-TOTAL.

Copper miner Teck Resources reported production setbacks at two operations in Chile this week, and the Kakula copper operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo was impacted by seismic activity, resulting in the underground portion of the operation flooding, ANZ said.

Among other London metals, LME aluminium CMAL3 dropped 0.5% to $2,466.5 a ton and lead CMPB3 gained 0.6% to $1,990.

SHFE tin SSNcv1 remained the strongest performer on Friday, up 1.8% to 263,600 yuan.

The gains in tin were driven by market talk that shipments of tin concentrates from Myanmar to China via Thailand had been disrupted, two China-based analysts said.

Among other SHFE metals, aluminium SAFcv1 was up 0.1% to 20,070 yuan a ton, lead SPBcv1 gained 0.4% to 16,780 yuan, and nickel SNIcv1 was up 0.4% to 122,220 yuan.

Copper inventories in SHFE-registered warehouses rose 1.5% on week. CU-STX-SGH

($1 = 7.1842 Chinese yuan)

 For related news and prices, click on the codes in brackets: LME price overview      RING= COMEX copper futures  0#HG: All metals news         MTL   All commodities news      C 
 Foreign exchange rates FX=SPEED GUIDES LME/INDEX