India Base Metals
Copper up on strong China IIP data, US Fed rate cut bets
This story was originally published at 20:03 IST on 20 October 2025
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By Reshma Ravi
MUMBAI – Futures contracts of copper rose on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India and the London Metal Exchange on Monday as China's industrial output data grew stronger than expected. Market sentiment was also lifted by easing trade tension between the US and China.
Top metals' consumer China's industrial output data rose 6.5% on year, Reuters quoted citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday. "With the production data coming in hotter than market expectations, that's good for the base metals group," Reuters quoted Nitesh Shah, commodity strategist at WisdomTree as saying.
US President Donald Trump said extra tariffs on China were "not sustainable" and a fresh round of US-China trade talks is scheduled this week. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had spoken virtually to Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng Friday. Bessent said the talk with was "frank and detailed", reaffirming plans to meet in person this week.
Copper prices were also supported due to rising expectation of US Federal Reserve rate cut. According to CME's FedWatch tool, 98.9% of traders are pricing in the probability of a 25-basis-point rate cut by the Fed this month, while the rest expect rates to remain unchanged at 4.00-4.25%. A rate cut boosts the economy, supporting demand for base metals such as copper.
At 1943 IST, on the MCX, the October futures contract of:
-–ALUMINIUM was at INR 262.25 a kg, up 0.1%
–-COPPER was at INR 986.40 a kg, up 0.3%
–-LEAD was at INR 177.35 a kg, down 0.1%
–-ZINC was at INR 292.35 a kg, up 0.5%
The November futures contract of NICKEL was at INR 1,308.1 a kg, down 0.2%
Trading levels for the day on the MCX:
--Aluminium contract seen at INR 250.00-INR 267.00
--Copper contract seen at INR 864.00-INR 996.00
--Lead contract seen at INR 174.80-INR 180.40
--Zinc contract seen at INR 285.50-INR 297.20
--Nickel contract seen at INR 1,290.00-INR 1,320.00
End
IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT
Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury
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