METALS-Copper climbs on dip-buying, softer dollar

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Copper rose on Monday, as investors bought the dip after a volatile week, and the dollar turned softer.

The most-active copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 rose 1.78% to 101,780 yuan ($14,679.24) a metric ton as of 0308 GMT.

The benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 added 0.40% to $13,046.50 a ton, sustaining above the $13,000 mark.

Last week, SHFE copper lost 7.70%, the steepest weekly fall since July 2022, and the LME copper declined 1.24%.

The U.S. dollar =USD also turned softer, providing some support for the greenback-denominated commodities by making them more affordable for investors using other currencies.

Copper's gains on Monday also came as a part of a broader recovery in metals complex led by gold =XAU and silver XAG=.

Analysts saw the supply-demand fundamentals for copper as unchanged.

Unexpected mine outages and unevenly distributed refined copper stocks among regions due to the U.S. tariff threat continue to underpin supply worries, while the metal remains central to electrification and the expansion of AI data centres.

"The (copper) market is set to remain undersupplied by 4–5%, keeping prices supported despite the risk of a short-term pullback as inventories rise but remain unevenly distributed," analysts at ANZ Research said in a note.

Rising inventories, however, remained a focus for the market, while near-term demand was also in question as a nine-day Lunar New Year break in the biggest consumer market, China, is set to begin on February 15.

Copper stocks in SHFE-sheds CU-STX-SGH climbed to 248,911 tons on Friday, the highest since March 2025, while stock levels in LME MCUSTX-TOTAL and Comex HG-STX-COMEX continued to rise.

Among other SHFE base metals, tin SSNcv1 led gains, up 3.72%. Aluminium SAFcv1 rose 1.11%, zinc SZNcv1 climbed 0.67%, lead SPBcv1 nudged 0.21% higher and nickel SNIcv1 gained 1.46%.

Elsewhere on the LME, tin CMSN3 was also leading the gains, rising 1.99%, aluminium CMAL3 ticked 0.15% higher, zinc CMZN3 added 0.60%, and nickel CMNI3 climbed 1.08%. Lead CMPB3 was the only metal to post a loss, down 0.10%.

($1 = 6.9336 Chinese yuan renminbi)