The price of a number of metals increased on the LME yesterday but only by a little.
With world economic woes still spooking the market, this was a case of Chinese buyers coming in and buying at a good price and pushing the value up slightly.
Three-month copper was up yesterday to $7,295 (£4,694) from $7,193 (£4,621) on Wednesday.
Aluminium increased on Thursday to $2,024 (£1,302) from Wednesday’s $2,018 (£1,296). Alloy was up to $1,940 (£1,248) from Wednesday’s $1,925 (£1,237).
Lead was up to $2,003 (£1,289) yesterday from $1,978 (£1,271) the day before. Nickel edged up to $17,215 (£11,078) on Thursday compared to $17,125 (£11,002) a day earlier.
Tin was down to $20,500 (£13,192) on Thursday from $20,700 (£13,298) a day earlier. Zinc was unchanged on $1,898 but increased by £2 to £1,221.
Steel was slightly lower at $520 (£335) from $523 (£336) the day before.