Base metals on MCX were trading significantly up today, tracking trends on the London Metal Exchange (LME).
Prices on LME rose on short covering, fall in exchange-monitored warehouse inventories and expectations China that might announce a second bailout package, analysts said.
China is expected to announce another bailout package worth $585-billion to aid its slowing economy. The aid is likely to increase investment in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors, according to reports.
China is the world's largest consumer and producer of most base metals.
"The China factor has led to short-covering in the global market by speculators," said Prakash Prabhu, analyst at Greenback Commodities.
Meanwhile, the decline in inventories at LME warehouses also lent support to prices of non-ferrous metals today.
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Copper stockpiles fell by 3,175 tonne, while zinc inventories shrank by 2,925 tonne.
Nickel saw a marginal fall in stocks, while inventories of aluminium and lead increased.
On MCX, lead and copper prices moved up by over 2 per cent, while nickel rose over 1 per cent. At 5:42PM, MCX April copper contract was at Rs 192.75 per kg, up 2.07 per cent from Thursday's close.
The contract was expected to find support at Rs 187 per kg and face resistance at Rs 194 today, said Abhishek Chauhan, analyst at Angel Commodities.
"MCX copper looks bullish today and is expected to touch the resistance level," he said.
Aluminium was a marginal gainer on the bourse, whereas tin surged nearly 6 per cent.
At 5:42PM, the March tin contract was at Rs 594.75 per kg, up 5.97 per cent from the previous day.
Since the beginning of the week, tin prices have risen nearly 2.5 per cent in the domestic market.
Most analysts said impact of positive global factors was strong on the domestic complex today compared with last few sessions, despite the rupee being firm against the dollar.
The rupee ended at 51.6900 per dollar today compared with 51.7600 on Thursday.
The Indian unit usually has an inverse relation with base metals.
"The rupee has been playing an important role in setting trend in (domestic) metal prices since the last few days, but today the impact was relatively weak," said a Mumbai-based analyst.