Copper prices drifted down by 2.72 per cent to Rs 421.30 per kg in futures trade today as speculators cut down their positions, driven by a weak trend overseas.
Besides, easing demand from consuming industries at domestic spot market, too, fulled the downtrend.
At the Multi Commodity Exchange, copper for delivery in August declined by Rs 11.80, or 2.72 per cent, to Rs 421.30 per kg in business turnover of 5507 lots.
Similarly, the metal for delivery in November contracts lost Rs 11.30, or 2.57 per cent, to Rs 428.75 per kg in 188 lots.
Analysts said offloading of positions by traders in line with a weak trend overseas where copper prices slumped to their weakest level in a year amid a broad selloff today after the Trump administration said it would slap 10 per cent tariffs on an extra USD 200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
US President Donald Trump's latest tariff threat escalates an already deepening trade war between the world's two biggest economies, fuelling risk aversion across assets from commodities to equities.
Meanwhile, copper for delivery in three-month dropped 3.8 per cent to USD 6,092.50 a tonne, its lowest since July 25 last year on the London Metal Exchange.