Copper rebounds

London
Zinc, copper and nickel rebounded on Tuesday as bearish investors bought back positions to lock in profits while a weaker dollar and firmer oil also supported the hard-hit market.
Investors, many from China, which had unleashed waves of selling in recent weeks, took a breather and bought back some of their short positions, analyst David Wilson at Citibank said. "The Chinese selling has been absolutely massive over the last few weeks, so I guess we're getting some short-covering," he said. "You've had a decent pullback in open interest."
The closure of short positions showed up on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE), where open interest in the most active zinc contract tumbled on Tuesday by 36,706 contracts, or 14 percent, as the price surged 3.4 percent. Three-month zinc on the London Metal Exchange failed to trade in closing open outcry activity and was bid up 2.2 percent at $1,580.50 a tonne.