Chinese commodities lifted by macro indicators

Domestic commodity futures rose broadly Thursday after China's GDP for the third quarter, though low, met the market's expectations.

The most traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) gained 0.8 percent to close at 59,130 yuan ($9,456.49) per ton.

The January contract rose after China's National Bureau of Statistics reported that the country's GDP grew at an annual rate of 7.4 percent in the third quarter of 2012. Although the figure was in line with expectations, the better-than-expected economic data that the bureau released with the GDP figure buoyed the financial markets, according to analysts from the Australian bank ANZ.

Industrial production in the third quarter expanded 9.2 percent year-on-year, beating the market's estimate of 8.9 percent, according to ANZ. Domestic, retail sales grew at an annual rate of 14.2 percent, surpassing expectations of 13.2 percent.

The three-month copper contract on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.2 percent at $8,230 per ton when the Chinese mainland markets closed Thursday.

The equities and commodities markets also showed a renewed appetite for risk following the release late Wednesday of better than expected US housing data.

"There were strong rises in permits and starts for both apartments and houses, and the gains were relatively broadly based across regions," ANZ commodities analysts wrote Thursday. "While there could be some noise in the data, it does appear that the housing demand/supply balance has finally turned and the strong growth in permits suggests momentum will carry on into next month," they went on to write.