(Updates prices) By Polina Devitt LONDON, June 26 (Reuters) - Copper prices edged up onMonday as declining stocks in warehouses registered by theLondon Metal Exchange (LME) and rain-hit mining operations inChile offset a firm dollar and concerns about global economicgrowth. Benchmark copper on the LME was up 0.1% at $8,397.50a metric ton by 1550 GMT after the metal used in power andconstruction fell 2% last week.
All other base metals were down as macroeconomic datacontinued to disappoint. German business morale worsened for thesecond consecutive month in June after a slump in Germanmanufacturing to a 37-month low while S&P cut its forecast foreconomic growth in China this year. Official PMIs from China, due this week, should provide someinsight into the demand outlook from the world's biggest metals consumer. "We are seeing a resumption of metal price weakness," saidSP Angel metals associate Arthur Parish, citing receding hopesof more substantial economic stimulus in China. "This is beingled by the steel sector, with coking coal and coke heading toyearly lows." The premium for LME cash over the three-month coppercontract jumped to a seven-month peak after a declinein stocks available to the market. Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, halted somemining operations in Chile due to heavy rain last week, INGanalysts said. On the technical front, copper is squeezed between 50-dayand 21-day moving averages, with the 200-day moving averagecoming in between them at $8,417. The dollar retreated slightly on Monday but remains strongafter a more than 0.5% gain last week. A strong U.S. currencymakes dollar-priced metals less attractive for buyers holdingother currencies. In other metals, LME aluminium fell 1.1% to $2,150 ametric ton while tin slid 3.1% to $25,650, zinc lost 1.3% to $2,333 while lead dropped 2.4% to $2,072.50and nickel tumbled 4.8% to $20,285, the weakest sinceSeptember last year. (Reporting by Polina DevittAdditional reporting by Siyi Liu in BeijingEditing by David Goodman and Christina Fincher)
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