LME copper ticks up after 6-day loss, bounce wobbly

London copper futures rebounded nearly 1 percent on Tuesday as investors bought the metal after it shed nearly $900 in a six-day selling spree fed by concern over debt contagion in Europe, slower Chinese demand and poor U.S. data.

But copper's bounce looked unconvincing and other base metals were mostly flat to lower as sentiment remained shaky with no clear resolution to a spreading debt crisis in the euro zone that has trapped the single currency at near four-year lows against the U.S. dollar.

"There's certainly nothing in terms of the information released recently that would be causing a rally, so I have to put it down to just some buying on weakness given the big falls in recent days associated with panic selling," said Ben Westmore, commodity economist at National Australia Bank.

London copper had lost nearly 13 percent over the past six sessions, dragging it to eight-month lows on Monday, while other metals, including aluminium, zinc, tin and nickel, also probed multi-month lows as the euro zone debt worries persisted.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke believes European leaders are committed to ensuring the survival of the euro and have enough money to meet obligations of heavily indebted member countries.

"European leadership is strongly committed to doing whatever is necessary to preserve the euro, preserve the euro zone, preserve the European project, and avoid financial problems that would certainly arise," Bernanke said at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington on Monday.

Finance ministers from the debt-stricken euro zone sought to restore confidence in financial markets by finalising arrangements for a Special Purpose Vehicle to raise up to 440 billion euros to lend to euro zone countries that run into Greek-style debt problems.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange gained $50 to $6,150 a tonne by 0314 GMT, after falling as low as $6,037.50 on Monday, its weakest since October 6, 2009.

Its bounce notwithstanding, LME copper's bearish target of $5,958 per tonne is seen intact because the trending signal is still down, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao said.

For a graphic showing the technical outlook, double-click: here

Shanghai's benchmark third month copper dropped 710 yuan to 49,470 yuan a tonne, catching up with losses on LME overnight.

Shanghai copper fell by its 5 percent limit on Monday but traders say the price should have dropped much more without the exchange-imposed floor, given that LME copper has lost around $500 between Shanghai's Friday close and its Monday open.

"Shanghai copper is still stronger compared to London so we're seeing some arbitrage buying -- 'buy London, sell Shanghai' -- now, that's why London prices are up," said a metals trader in Shanghai.

Moore said it was also difficult to say whether prices had hit, or were nearing, bottom, given the recent volatility in both commodity and equity markets.

"It does look like we're in a more volatile world now than we were at the start of this year," he said.