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Shanghai copper lower on China rate rise
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-03-19 15:56
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The most-traded June contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was at 60,850 yuan ($7,867) a tonne at midday, down 0.3 percent from 61,030 yuan at Friday's close.
China's central bank said over the weekend it was raising its lending and deposit rates by 0.27 percentage points, taking the one-year benchmark deposit rate to 2.79 percent and the lending rate to 6.39 percent in its latest attempt to clamp down on robust credit and investment growth.
"China'sfixed assets investment in the rest of year could decrease on the interest rate hike, and the decline will restrain domestic demand of metals," said analyst Yang Jun at China Futures inChongqing.
However, others said the move would have a limited effect beyond an initial kneejerk.
"We have seen credit curbs a number of times in recent years but they haven't contributed much to slowing metals demand in China," Gerard Burg, minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank, said.
"Short term, this will have an impact on sentiment. Investors have been concerned about Chinese growth and we might see some price movement downwards. From a fundamental perspective, this won't make much difference and the growth story remains in place, underpinning metals prices."
Analyst Pang Ying at Minmetals Star Futures in Shenzhen noted that an interest rate hike of just 0.27 percentage points would have only a limited influence on fixed-asset investment.
"So I think metals markets will not be impacted a lot."
That sentiment was also supported by mining stocks.
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