Caution prevailed as the market awaited the outcome of the State Reserves Bureau's third auction to sell another 20,000 tonnes of spot copper on Wednesday after holding two auctions aimed at pushing down copper prices, traders said.
"Investors were uncertain about the near-term market trend and they were particularly concerned about the outcome of tomorrow's auction," said a Shanghai trader.
"So domestic copper prices are likely to move narrowly." Shanghai's most active February contract ended at 36,040 yuan ($4,461) on Tuesday, up 180 yuan from Monday's close.
Combined trading volume on the domestic market fell to 70,942 lots from Monday's 92,148 lots. Shanghai's cash prices were relatively weak on Tuesday, falling an average of 50 yuan to move between 38,000 and 39,000 yuan a tonne, traders said.
Benchmark LME copper futures were quoted at $4,219 a tonne on Tuesday when the Shanghai market closed, up $24 from $4,195 at the same time on Monday.
Shanghai aluminium futures closed mixed on Tuesday. The most-active March contract ended at 17,570 yuan per tonne, down 70 yuan from Monday's close, but the distant September contract closed up 490 yuan to 18,100 yuan.
Combined aluminium market trading volume rose to 28,586 lots from 20,880 lots on Monday.
Benchmark LME aluminium futures were at $2,119 a tonne on Tuesday, up from $2,101 when the Shanghai market closed on Monday.