Updates prices as of 1556 GMT

By Polina Devitt

LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) -Aluminium prices hit the lowest in almost five months and copper fell in London on Tuesday, as concerns about demand in top consumer China and uncertainty about timing of interest-rate cuts worsened speculative sentiment towards industrial metals.

Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME) CMAL3 was down 1.0% at $2,229 per metric ton by 1556 GMT, after hitting $2,209.50 for its lowest since March 1.

Copper CMCU3 fell 0.5% to $8,975.50, breaking below its 200-day moving average at $8,998.

Chinese leaders signalled on Tuesday the stimulus measures needed to reach this year's economic growth target will be directed at consumers, deviating from their usual playbook of pouring funds into infrastructure projects.

Signs of plenty of metals for near-term supply, continued woes of China's housing sector, the lack of a meaningful recovery in its macro data and the lack of stimulus measures which would target the metals-consuming industries keep metals prices under pressure, said Standard Chartered analyst Sudakshina Unnikrishnan.

The selloff in metals could accelerate if China's factory activity data due on Wednesday shows a decline from the previous month, said Sandeep Daga, a director at Metal Intelligence Centre.

The dollar index =USD was up, while the broader markets traded cautiously ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting, pricing almost no chance of a rate cut on Wednesday, but betting on a rate reduction at the following meeting in September.

Copper, used in power and construction, was down 19% since a rally triggered by short covering and speculators' bets on a potential long-term shortage of copper in the green energy transition took it to a record high of $11,104.50 on May 20.

Money managers' net long positions on COMEX copper fell to 19,515 contracts on July 23 from 75,342 contracts on May 21, exchange data showed.

However, suggesting that miners remained optimistic about copper's longer-term prospects, BHP Group and Lundin Mining said they would buy Filo Corp, which is yet to start production at a copper deposit it develops in Latin America, for $3.25 billion.

Zinc CMZN3 lost 0.3% to $2,628, lead CMPB3 declined 1.6% to $2,034.50, tin CMSN3 dropped 1.7% to $28,830 and nickel CMNI3 rose 1.5% to $16,070.

Reporting by Polina Devitt in London; Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Shreya Biswas, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Shounak Dasgupta

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