London copper prices rose slightly on Wednesday as investors hoped that central banks around the world would launch stimulus measures to blunt the economic impact of the fast-spreading coronavirus.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose 0.1 percent to $5,691 a ton, although gains were limited and the contract fell as much as 0.5 percent in early trade as the outbreak rapidly escalated outside China.
South Korea and China reported 500 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, as the United
States warned of an inevitable pandemic and an outbreak in northern Italy spread to several European countries.
“We’re going to see coordinated QE (quantitative easing) across all central banks,” said a base metals trader.
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) declined 0.3 percent to 45,540 yuan ($6,493.84) a ton.
Copper prices, widely used as a gauge of economic health, have been hit as China, the epicenter of the outbreak, is the world’s biggest user of the metal. — Reuters
