Copper boosted by China trade data

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 per cent at US$ 6,729 a metric ton 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 US$ 18.46 billion.

Its April copper, copper-products imports rose 52.5 per cent on the year to 450,000 tons.

"Chinese traders have clearly taken advantage once again of the low copper prices - the red metal dropped by 10 per cent 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," said analysts at Commerzbank AG.

China is the world's largest copper market, accounting for 40 per cent of the world's imports of the industrial metal.