SHFE copper up on US job report

Chinese commodities prices rose broadly Monday as enthusiasm held over from the US employment report Friday hit the Asian markets.

The most traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) added 0.67 percent to close at 54,460 yuan ($8,542.70) per ton. Although the contract opened 0.92 percent above Friday's closing price, it traded steady throughout Monday's session.

The three-month copper contract on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was trading at $7,422.50 per ton when the Chinese mainland markets closed, down a fraction of a percent.

Domestic precious metals and petrochemicals experienced more significant gains. The most traded SHFE gold contract rose 0.92 percent to close at 332.90 yuan per gram, while the most active SHFE silver contract rose 1.54 percent.

Chinese petrochemical futures also rose by 1 percent or more with pure terephthalic acid (PTA) jumping 2 percent on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange.

Petrochemicals gained, at least in part, from the rise in benchmark crude oil futures. Nymex West Texas Intermediate crude oil leapt 4.9 percent Friday.

As with copper futures, the bulk of the petrochemical increases occurred when the market opened Monday, indicating enthusiasm from the US jobs data was already waning. US non-farm payrolls rose by 163,000 in July, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

According to analysts from the Australian bank ANZ, the market will focus its attention on China's July macroeconomic data, which is scheduled to be released later in the week.

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