Mumbai (Commodities Control) – London copper traded little changed on Friday after falling in the previous two sessions ahead of the release of data from China that is expected to show that growth in the world's second-biggest economy slowed in 2019.
Recent China data has shown some improvements in its economy amid a bruising trade war with the United States, but doubts linger on whether the country can sustain a recovery.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was almost unchanged at $6,280 a tonne by 0141 GMT, while the most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) eased 0.1% to 49,210 yuan ($7,155.94) a tonne.
LME aluminium eased 0.1% to $1,810.50 a tonne, nickel rose 0.7% to $13,870 a tonne, zinc fell 0.8% to $2,403.50 a tonne and lead declined 0.8% to $1,986.50 a tonne.
ShFE aluminium climbed 1.7% to 14,340 yuan a tonne, nickel dropped 2.6% to 108,260 yuan a tonne while zinc rose 0.6% to 18,330 yuan a tonne.
In the previous session, LME base metals closed mixed on Thursday. Nickel plunged 3.8% to be the worst performer on the day, lead dropped 1.1% and copper shed 0.5%, while zinc advanced 0.3%, aluminium gained 0.5% and tin rose 0.8%.
In China, its central bank said on Thursday that the country’s new yuan-denominated loans totaled 16.81 trillion yuan ($2.44 trillion) last year, up 643.9 billion yuan year on year. In December alone, new loans stood at 1.14 trillion yuan, up 54.3 billion yuan year on year.
China's economy is seen slowing to 6.1% last year, from 6.6% in 2018 and would be the weakest annual growth since 1990, a poll showed, reinforcing views that Beijing will roll out more stimulus measures.