NEW YORK/LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Copper ended little changed...

NEW YORK/LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Copper ended little changed on Thursday, but remained poised to trend higher as concerns receded about potential monetary tightening in China, with investors regaining confidence demand would forge on in the world's top industrial metals consumer.

Benchmark copper for March delivery HGH0 on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division fell 1.25 cents to settle at $3.3875 per lb, near the bottom end of its $3.3830 to $3.4440 session range.

On the London Metal Exchange (LME), copper for three-months delivery MCU3 ended at $7,490 a tonne, up a shade from a close of $7,485 on Wednesday.

"Copper looks like it took a bit of a break today from the initial concerns this week from China's monetary tightening, but those concerns are probably fading," said Pat Donnelly, senior broker with Olympus Futures in Chicago.

Industrial metals prices fell to multi-week lows earlier this week after China raised banks' reserve requirement ratios, with the move initially stoking concerns about potential rate hikes and a clamp-down on spending. [ID:nTOE60B095]

But investors later viewed China's step as a bullish reminder that the country's economy is powering ahead.

"The reserves ratio (move) is not a major issue, the economy has its own momentum, China is going to achieve solid growth rates this year," said David Wilson, analyst at Societe Generale.

Also supporting copper, the premium or arbitrage between Shanghai copper over the London benchmark was still wide enough to make imports attractive.

Chinese copper imports rose 27 percent in December as government stockpiling continued and the arbitrage between Shanghai and London opened up