Copper rises

Sydney : London copper eased a touch in early Asian trading on Friday but remained close to a 4-year peak hit overnight amid a bullish outlook for demand and supply uncertainty.

Copper´s upward momentum has put the metal used in a wide range of industrial and hi-tech applications on track for its largest annual rise since 2009. Prices in 2017 have galloped moe than 30 percent higher.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange eased to $7,277 a tonne by 0124 GMT, down 0.2 percent from the close in more active London Metal Exchange trading overnight, where the contract reached $7,312.50 in intraday trading, its highest since January 2014. I* SHFE: The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed 0.3 percent to 55,600 yuan ($8,511)a tonne.

China accounts for about half of global copper demand estimated at around 23.5 million tonnes.