Copper falls in London, sees gain in New York

Base metals prices were lower in London trade on Wednesday but the price of copper, as well as prices for precious metals saw gains in New York trade during the session.

New concerns over Greece’s debt crisis and an associated drop in the euro versus the dollar that put demand in Europe into question send three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange down $30 to $7,760 per tonne on the session, although declines were limited on new data from China which showed that imports of refined copper there added 52.9 percent in March over February on China’s continuing program to improve infrastructure.

Prices for June copper contracts in New York were up just over a cent to $3.52 per pound in midday trade.

Also damaging prices was new data from the International Copper Study group which showed that January production outstripped consumption.

Among other base metals on the LME, lead dropped $25 to $2,320 per tonne and zinc was down by about the same amount to $2,435 per tonne, while aluminium fell $34 to $2,351 per tonne and nickel dropped $310 to $26,975 per tonne.

Tin went untraded at the close, but its last bids were down $250 to $19,000 per tonne.

June gold was up $11.40 to $1,150 per troy ounce at just before 1 p.m. in New York, while July platinum traded higher at $1,735.60 and June palladium was up $2.46 to $565.85 on investment demand and on imports by China.