Shanghai copper prices inch up on positive manufacturing data

The Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) copper prices rose slightly on Friday mainly due to China's positive official manufacturing data for July.

The official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 51.7 in July, up from 51 in June, its highest reading in 27 months, data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The most-traded copper futures for October finished at 50,530 yuan ($8,175.98) per ton on the SHFE on Friday, up 20 yuan from Thursday.

The copper price was down 420 yuan or 0.82 percent from the previous Friday. The trading volume climbed 6,066 lots on Friday from Thursday's 186,260 lots.

Shanghai copper market didn't make an immediate reaction to the PMI data released on Friday.

On Friday's afternoon, copper futures only saw a modest gain as investors still waited for the employment data which was due to be released on Friday night, according to a report by Xi'an-based Western Futures on Friday.

The report from Western Futures said investors don't need to be too bearish about copper prices in view of market expectations of a broader economic recovery.

However, some analysts are still holding a cautious attitude toward the recovery data in China.

"We've seen a mini stimulus being applied early in the second quarter that's now beginning to filter through and what's helping the manufacturing sector a little bit is somewhat better export numbers which obviously feeds into manufacturing as well," said a report by financial information portal cnbc.com on Thursday, quoting Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asia economic research at HSBC.

Also, the improving outlook for the US economy is going to expand the demand for metals which could be good news for copper-related industries, Reuters reported on Friday.