COPPER hit its highest in a month on Monday as hopes grew of a US-China trade deal, Barclays Bank daily report said.
According to the report, three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose as much as 0.5 percent to $5,837.50 a tonne.
This is the highest since September 20, while the most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) advanced 0.9 percent to 47,150 yuan ($6,671.01) a tonne.
Meanwhile, oil prices edged lower on Friday, as concerns about China’s economy outweighed bullish signals from its refining sector, but losses were limited on hopes for progress toward a US-China trade agreement.
“Benchmark Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 fell 49 cents to settle at $59.42 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures lost 15 cents to settle at $53.78 a barrel. For the week Brent fell 1.8 percent, while WTI lost 1.7 percent,” the report said.
Gold prices, the report said, were little changed on Monday as investors waited for more clarity on US-China trade negotiations, and Brexit after British parliamentarians delayed a crucial vote on the divorce deal. “Spot gold was flat at $1,490.03 per ounce. US gold futures dipped slightly to $1,493.50.
The long-standing Sino-US trade war has taken a toll on economies around the world with Japan’s exports down for a 10th straight month, South Korean exports plunging 19.5 percent in October, and Thai exports missing expectations,” the report says.
And kwacha was stable throughout last week showing high resistance to stay within 13.15-13.20 levels.
“There was some activity on the demand side, however, a few pockets of supply matched out most of the demand as the rates remained flat.
We expect the currency to gain some ground this week as corporates begin to prepare for their month end obligations,” the report said.
The report said the liquidity levels pushed up slightly on Thursday to K1,022.57 million from K964.99 million with the volumes of funds traded on the interbank also increasing to K375.00 million from K270.00 million seen on Wednesday.
“The cost of borrowing funds pushed higher to 10.43 percent from 10.33 percent.
The government was in the market on Thursday in a primary bond auction with a target amount of K1.1billion.
“Yields remained unchanged in two years and seven years tenors while three years and 10 years both reduced by 100bps. We saw an increase in five years and 15 years tenors by 50bps and 100bps respectively,” the report said.
