Domestic commodity futures weaken on IMF predictions

Chinese commodity futures traded lower Wednesday as the market pessimism which emerged Tuesday carried over into the following session.

The most traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) fell 0.62 percent to close at 58,860 yuan ($9,348) per ton. The January contract slipped lower over the session after opening 0.51 percent below Tuesday's closing price.

The contract stayed in line with the benchmark three-month contract on the London Metal Exchange (LME), which had fallen 0.4 percent Wednesday by the time the Chinese mainland markets had closed for the day.

Meanwhile, the most active SHFE gold contract fell 0.62 percent to 359.55 yuan per gram.

The commodities markets continue to suffer from ongoing concerns about a slowdown in global economic growth, according to commodity analysts from the Australian bank ANZ.

"Markets were generally cautious overnight after the IMF global growth cuts and ahead of the US third quarter earnings season," they said in a note Wednesday. "The IMF said the global economic slowdown is worsening, cutting its growth forecasts from 3.5 percent to 3.3 percent, the lowest level since 2009. Equities were lower ahead of US earnings reports with expectations of an average 1.7 percent fall in earnings, the first fall since 2009."