"The day brought a round of range trading in copper, with those expectations of some short covering coming never materialising," a commodities trader in Perth said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak with media.
A weakened outlook for copper demand in China, which consumes nearly half the world's requirements, amid soft data on imports and demand growth, weighed on sentiment, the trader said.
The negative sentiment was somewhat countered after the People's Bank of China released funding to ease credit, which could spur industrial and construction activity.
Copyright Reuters, 2017