(Updates with closing prices)By Pratima DesaiLONDON, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Copper prices hit one-week highson Monday due to expectations of stronger demand afterauthorities in top consumer China said they would take measuresaimed at bolstering growth and liquidity.Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange endedup 0.3 percent at $6,242 a tonne. It earlier touched $6,331.50 atonne, the highest since Oct. 15.
China's central bank governor said last week it would rollout targeted measures to help ease company financing problemsand encourage commercial banks to boost lending to privatefirms. "The news from China is encouraging for metals," said EugenWeinberg, analyst at Commerzbank. "Measures that add liquiditywill help in the short to medium term, but it won't solve theproblem of indebtedness, a problem for some years now."
CHINA TAX: China's tax cuts next year could exceed theequivalent of 1 percent of gross domestic product, a centralbank adviser said, in a sign policymakers might be consideringanother round of tax reductions. GROWTH: China's economic growth cooled to its weakestquarterly pace since the global financial crisis, withregulators moving quickly to calm nervous investors as ayears-long campaign to tackle debt risks and the trade war withthe United States began to bite. DEMAND: China accounts for about half of global copperdemand, estimated this year at around 24 million tonnes.China is "multiplying its efforts to support the economy,and in particular, the infrastructure sector amid domestic andinternational headwinds," such as the trade war with the UnitedStates and high debt levels, Fitch Solutions said in a note.The country's demand for copper, an economic bellwether,"will improve over the coming months as property completions andgrid investment pick up and demand from the autos and consumersectors remain buoyant," the research house said.
TECHNICALS: Strong upside resistance for copper is at the100-day moving average, currently around $6,320, and support isat $6,115, the 55-day moving average.STOCKS: Traders say significantly higher copper prices inChina could encourage further outflows from LME-approvedwarehouses to those monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange.
LME copper stocks at 154,225 tonnes have tumbled 27 percentsince Sept. 24, while those in ShFE warehouses are up about 27percent over the same period to 140,789 tonnes.ALUMINIUM OUTPUT: Global primary aluminium output fell to5.301 million tonnes in September from a revised 5.485 milliontonnes in August, data from the International AluminiumInstitute showed on Monday. PRICES: Aluminium traded 0.2 percent higher at$2,007, zinc gained 1.1 percent to $2,656, lead was bid up 0.6 percent to $2,005, tin rose 0.3 percentto $19,225 and nickel climbed 0.7 percent to $12,530 atonne.<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Tom DalyEditing by Helen Popper, Jane Merriman and Jan Harvey)