* Focus on credit and liquidity in China
* Zinc stocks at historical low (Updates with closing prices)By Pratima DesaiLONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - Copper prices steadied onMonday, reinforced by a lower dollar and healthy economicnumbers from China ahead of a barrage of growth data later thisweek from the top consumer.Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange endedlittle changed at $6,480 a tonne. The metal, used in power andconstruction, has mostly traded in a narrow range between $6,300and $6,500 since the middle of February."Chinese data from Friday is supporting copper and otherindustrial metals," Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann said.
"The market is waiting for the next bunch of data fromChina."
IMPORTS: China imported 391,000 tonnes of unwrought copperlast month, up 25.7 percent from the previous month and 26.5percent higher than a year earlier. LOANS: Chinese banks extended 1.69 trillion yuan ($251.6billion) in net new yuan loans in March, compared withexpectations of 1.2 trillion yuan. DATA: China's first-quarter economic growth is expected tohave cooled to the weakest pace in at least 27 years, a Reuterspoll showed, but a flurry of measures to boost domestic demandmay have put a floor under slowing activity in March. Industrial output is forecast to have increased 5.9 percentfrom a year earlier, quickening from 5.3 percent in the firsttwo months, which was the weakest pace in 17 years.LIQUIDITY: John Browning, managing director at BANDSFinancial, said in a note that total social financing, a broadmeasure of credit and liquidity in China, is important."Liquidity in China's private sector averaged 0.96 trillionyuan from 2002 until 2019, reaching an all-time high of 4.64trillion yuan in January this year," Browning said, adding thatthe first-quarter average at 2.73 trillion yuan is almost threetimes the long-term average."It should be noted the effect of Chinese tax cuts is yet tocome. There is no previous example of a monetary and fiscalpolicy injection of this scale, and as such is somewhatexperimental, the (result) being no means guaranteed."DOLLAR: A lower U.S. currency makes dollar-denominatedcommodities cheaper for holders of other currencies, which couldboost demand and prices.ZINC: The premium for the cash over the three-month contract spiked above $100 a tonne on Friday to its highestsince early December on concern about supply on the LME marketdue to large warrant holdings and historically low stocks at56,125 tonnes.Three-month zinc was down 1 percent at $2,900 atonne.PRICES: Aluminium added 0.1 percent to $1,865, lead gained 1.4 percent to $1,953, tin slipped 0.1percent to $20,575.Nickel did not trade in open outcry at the close andno bids were shown. It was down 0.2 percent at $12,955 at 1600GMT.<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Pratima Desai; additional reporting by MaiNguyen; Editing by Louise Heavens and Ed Osmond)