London copper heads for biggest weekly rise

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MELBOURNE: London copper slipped on Friday, but was still on track to post its biggest weekly rise in six weeks on signs that Chinese economy could be stabilising after first-quarter growth hit forecasts and other indicators surprised to the upside.

China's economy grew 6.7 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, meeting expectations and providing additional evidence that a slowdown in the world´s second-largest economy may be bottoming out.

"It's another data point moving in the right direction, which in a way markets have been pricing in - certainly the commodity markets in the past few weeks," said analyst Daniel Hynes at ANZ in Sydney.

"I think markets should be relatively buoyed with it ...I wouldn't expect to see things run away from us here, but I think there are signs that we have found a floor."

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was edged down by 0.4 percent to $4,812.50 a tonne by 0710 GMT after closing little changed in the previous session.

Prices were on track for a 3.5 percent weekly gain, the largest since the week of March 4.  "We think this consolidation is healthy and provides buying opportunities," said Argonaut Securities in a note.