Copper and aluminium fought a rearguard action against lower prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) on Thursday.
Copper touched $1,861 at one point during the morning session but bounced back to $1,876 during the kerb.
Aluminium shorts covered causing the nearby tightness on the cash/May dates to intensify. Cash/day moved from level to a $0.25 backwardation.
Aggressive buying was underpinning copper at $1,860 and aluminium at $1,445, said one trader.
Copper failed to make up all its losses. It was down $3 on the close at $1,876.
Traders said they were concerned that stocks would start to rise, although LME stocks showed a 4,450 tonne drop on Thursday.
Shipments are said to have arrived in Singapore where physical metal has been tight until now. In China, traders said they expect more metal in Shanghai warehouses.
This would be a very bearish signal, said one trader.
Turnover in aluminium was reasonable, said traders. It kept above support at $1,450 but was down $5 at $1,455 on the bell.
Nickel and tin were free of coppers cares and made further gains.
Nickel wanted to make a dash for higher numbers but good two-way activity above $5,600 put a stop to any real upside momentum. It rose $30 to $5,630.
Turnover in tin was shabby. Despite this tin shored up $25 and was last quoted at $5,725/50.
The poor technical outlook for lead and zinc meant they were under pressure.
The 10 and 30 day moving averages for lead have just crossed and zinc seems set to go the same way.
Fund selling was evident in both, particularly zinc, which crashed through the psychological $1,100 barrier.
Zinc shed $10 and ended the mid-session at $1,097, having touched $1,092.
Lead slipped to $561.50 early on, but then inched back up to $564 where it closed on Wednesday.
Alloy put in an unimpressive performance and was last quoted down at $1,325/26.
