Base metals fall on lack of aggressive property market measures in China
Oct 17 (Reuters) -Base metals prices fell on Thursday, weighed down by a lack of aggressive stimulus measures in China for the property market and as the dollar firmed.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) CMCU3 fell 0.1% to $9,550 per metric ton by 0351 GMT, while the most-traded November copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) SCFcv1 rose 0.1% to 76,610 yuan ($10,754) a ton.
China will expand a "white list" of housing projects eligible for financing and increase bank lending for such developments to 4 trillion yuan, in an effort to boost the country's troubled property sector.
A trader said the measures were supportive but the scale was small, so prices of metals retreated.
The property sector accounts for a large portion of industrial metals demand.
"There's a low level of confidence in significant announcements from policymakers, but any disappointment could exacerbate market weakness," Sucden Financial said in a note.
"Given a lack of a clear market signal, metals continue to follow a mean-reverting strategy, edging closer to their averages. For copper, this level is currently at $9,450 a ton," Sucden said.
There was little market participation on Thursday, two brokers said.
The dollar hovering near an 11-week high also made metals more expensive for holders of other currencies and weighed on prices.
LME aluminium CMAL3 declined 0.4% to $2,574.50 a ton, nickel CMNI3 dropped 0.9% to $17,130, zinc CMZN3 shed 0.7% to $3,031 while lead CMPB3 rose 0.1% to $2,085.50 and tin CMSN3 edged up 0.6% at $32,330.
SHFE nickel SNICv1 dropped 1.4% to 131,190 yuan a ton, zinc SZNcv1 declined 0.7% to 24,855 yuan, lead SPBcv1 fell 0.4% to 16,635 yuan, tin SSNIcv1 decreased 1% to 263,330 yuan while aluminium SAFcv1 rose 0.1% to 20,690 yuan.
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Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala
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