Copper hits near 2-month high on China data

London copper hit its highest in almost two months on Monday after data showed China's factory output growth accelerated to eight-month highs in November, but

lingering worries that the euro zone may return to recession next year kept a lid on gains.

Signs of renewed vigour in China's factories have brightened the demand outlook for industrial metals, while glimmers of improvement from sectors of the U.S. economy, such as housing and jobs, are also acting to underpin prices. China is the world's top consumer of metals.

"We've been gathering signs that things in China are going to stabilise and hopefully improve in the year ahead. So the outlook is looking a little bit more favorable for industrial metals," said Alexandra Knight, an economist with National Australia Bank in Melbourne.

"For the United States there's still the fiscal cliff which,

in the short term, could create some headwinds, plus ... there is no doubt the weakness in Europe will have impact on trade and also on the euro ... which affects metals," she added.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose

0.85 percent to $8,103 a tonne by 0604 GMT, extending a small gain from the previous session, when it logged a fourth week of gains in a row. Prices earlier hit $8,114 a tonne, the highest since Oct. 19.

Copper has gained steam since mid-November on prospects of improvement in China's economy and hopes for a resolution of the U.S. "fiscal cliff", a combination of government spending cuts and tax rises due to be implemented in 2013 under existing laws that could tip the world's top economy back into recession.

Prices are now up more than 6 percent for the year.

The most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai

... contd.

ALSO READ

Gold price rises 1 per cent, holds near one-week high

Gold, silver demand powers commodity bourses turnover 53%

Gold price regains Rs 28,000-mark on strong global demand

Gold demand skyrockets in India, importing banks struggle