copper rallies through 8000 per to

UPDATE 6-Copper rallies through $8,000/T, tin at new high
Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:24 PM BST
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By Pratima Desai

LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - Stronger equity and credit markets and a strike in Mexico helped copper prices rally through $8,000 a tonne on Tuesday.

Lead surged by 7.5 percent and tin hit a fresh record high.


"Some limited semblance of order returned to credit and equity markets, driving the performance in metals markets," John Reade, analyst at UBS, said.

European shares gained in a broad-based rally, after a five-day losing run with London-listed miners like Rio Tinto (RIO.L: Quote, Profile , Research), BHP Billiton (BLT.L: Quote, Profile , Research) and Anglo American (AAL.L: Quote, Profile , Research) rising around 5 percent.

The contract for copper, which is used in the power and construction industries, for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange rose to $8,005, up $180 from Monday. Earlier, it hit a session high of $8,029.75.

In New York, copper for September delivery rallied 6.00 cents, or 1.67 percent, to $3.6485 a lb on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, near the upper end of its $3.5815-$3.66 session range.

Traders said a strike at Grupo Mexico's (GMEXICOB.MX: Quote, Profile , Research) giant Cananea copper mine in northern Mexico helped copper.

Grupo Mexico's giant Cananea copper mine and two smaller mines have been closed by strikes, after miners walked off the job on Monday.[ID:nN31236302]

Barclays Capital predicted in a research note that the dispute would not be long-lived and said the real story in copper this year has been the resurgence of Chinese demand rather than supply issues.

"Anticipation of a resurgence in Chinese buying of copper may be enough to tighten copper market fundamentals and keep prices supported over the coming months, but recent production losses are not," the bank said.