crash has started, page-40

UPDATE 3-Copper losses on China jitters seen temporary
Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:23 AM GMT163
Email This Article | Print This Article | RSS
[-] Text [+]

(Recasts, adds fresh comment/details, PVS Sydney)

By Pratima Desai

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Copper prices eased on Tuesday as jitters about falling demand from China surfaced after its stock market plunged nearly 9 percent, but analysts think the worry is overdone and see higher base metal prices in the future.

That together with a South African report that a task force set up by the country's finance ministry has suggested windfall taxes on resource firms battered London-listed miners.

Anglo American (AAL.L: Quote, Profile , Research), BHP Billiton (BLT.L: Quote, Profile , Research), Rio Tinto (RIO.L: Quote, Profile , Research), Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote, Profile , Research)and Kazakhmys (KAZ.l: Quote, Profile , Research) all tumbled around three percent.

Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange was at $6,250/6,260 a tonne by 1055 GMT, compared with $6,290 on Monday when it touched a two-month high of $6,374.

That was a gain of more than 17 percent since a nine-month low of $5,250 at the start of February.

China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index <.SSEC> saw its biggest drop in a decade ahead of a parliament session next week rumoured to be considering higher interest rates to rein in ferocious economic growth rates.