METALS-Copper prices soften on geopolitical uncertainty

By Hongmei Li

SINGAPORE, June 20 (Reuters) - The most-traded copper contract prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange and London Metals Exchange fell on Friday as the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict kept investors cautious.

On Thursday, Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran, and Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel after hitting an Israeli hospital overnight, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying he will make a decision within the next two weeks on whether to get involved on Israel's side.

The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 eased 0.6% to 77,990 yuan ($10,855.31) per metric ton as of 0103 GMT, down 0.3% on the week, and three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 pared 0.5% to $9,571 a ton, down 0.8% on the week.

Copper softened on both exchanges for the second straight week.

"A few issues have been stirring the metals market sentiment, and investors are divided on how to assess these, most importantly the Middle East, but also the possible U.S. interest rate cuts, and China's lower consumption, just to name a few," said a Shanghai-based metals analyst at a futures firm.

China's refined copper output in May gained 13.6% on the year to 1.25 million metric tons, data on Wednesday showed, in line with April's output while the country's demand for metals such as copper and aluminium has been muted by summer seasonal weakness.

LME tin CMSN3 gained 0.3% to $32,100, while nickel CMNI3 fell 0.6% to $14,960, zinc CMZN3 was down 0.6% to $2,625, lead CMPB3 dropped 0.6% to $1,981, and aluminium CMAL3 ticked down 0.2% to $2,517.

SHFE tin SSNcv1 fell the most on the day by 1.2% to 260,560 yuan a ton, aluminium SAFcv1 eased 0.7% to 20,465 yuan, and lead SPBcv1 went down 0.4% to 16,810 yuan and zinc SZNcv1 dropped 0.3% to 21,845 yuan.

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DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
1230 US Philly Fed Business Indx Jun

1400 EU Consumer Confid. Flash Jun

($1 = 7.1845 Chinese yuan)

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