Recasts first paragraph, updates prices

NEW DELHI, June 26 (Reuters) -Copper futures erased losses to turn slightly higheron Wednesday althougha stronger dollar and weak demand outlook in top consumer China kept gains in check.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 was up 0.1%at $9,580per metric ton as of 0716 GMT.

The U.S. dollar kept downward pressure on the yen and yuan as traders awaited the release of U.S. price data at the end of the week. USD/

A firmer dollar makes greenback-priced metals more expensive to holders of other currencies.

The most-traded July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 was down 0.4% at 78,480 yuan ($10,800.25) a ton.

"The red metal has been under pressure in recent days following weak economic data," ANZ Research said in a note.

"The global outlook for manufacturing remains poor after flash PMIs in Europe and the US. This has been compounded by rising inventories for metals such as aluminium, copper and nickel."

LME aluminium CMAL3 was 0.04% higher at$2,497 a ton, nickel CMNI3 rose 0.6%to $17,270, zinc CMZN3 was up 1%to $2,900, lead CMPB3 eased 0.2%to $2,205.5, and tin CMSN3 fell 1.9% at $31,630.

SHFE aluminium SAFcv1 eased 0.2%to 20,320 yuan a ton, nickel SNIcv1 gained 0.9% to 136,040yuan, lead SPBcv1 was up 2% to 19,240yuan while zinc SZNcv1 was up 1.8% to 24,130 yuan and tin SSNcv1 slumped 2% to 267,200 yuan.

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DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

1000 France Unemp Class-A SA May

1400 US New Home Sales-Units May

($1 = 7.2665 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Reporting by Neha Arora; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala

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