The Shanghai benchmark copper contract for delivery in February rose by 0.28 percent on the Shanghai Futures Exchange Friday, finishing at 50,910 yuan ($8,374.18) per ton, up 0.61 percent week-on-week. The trading volume declined by 8,122 lots Friday compared to Thursday.
Copper has performed weakly in recent weeks due to sluggish demand and oversupply in the Chinese market, according to a report by Xinhua News Agency last week.
Experts and market watchers believe that copper prices will continue to fall, the report said, as many downstream enterprises in China will not replenish stocks of copper due to financial pressure at the end of the year.
The problem of oversupply also exists in the global copper market. According to data released by the International Copper Study Group in November, there was a 21,000 ton surplus of refined copper in the global market in August, following shortages in the previous three months.
Meanwhile, the benchmark three-month copper contract on the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $7,122 per ton Friday, a rise of 0.76 percent from the closing price of $7,068 per ton on Thursday.
According to a report by Reuters Friday, the slight rise was due to the release of US nonfarm payroll data Friday, which showed a boost in US employment by 203,000 new jobs in November this year, with the country's unemployment rate declining to its lowest level in five years.
The good job data from the US may also raise the possibility that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) could soon start pulling back from its quantitative easing policy, as the Fed has said that the timing for this would depend on the US labor and housing markets.
"Hawkish comments from the Fed … further raised expectations of a December tapering," said a report e-mailed to the Global Times Friday by Australian bank ANZ.
Some analysts suggested cautious buying of copper in the global market in the first quarter of 2014, given the signs of a stronger economic recovery in the US and also in China, Reuters reported Friday.
China is the world's largest copper consumer, accounting for about 40 percent of copper demand in the global market.