SYDNEY, April 2 (Reuters) - London copper climbed to its highest in more than three weeks on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake off the coast of top mine supplier Chile triggered a tsunami alert, which raised supply concerns and set off a volley of technical buying.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange
* The most-traded July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange
* A major earthquake of magnitude 8.0 struck off the coast of Chile on Tuesday, triggering a tsunami that hit the northern part of the country and a tsunami warning for all of South and Central America's Pacific coast.
* Iquique is a key copper exporting port, close to the country's main copper mines. Mining companies Codelco and BHP Billiton
* Manufacturing in Asia and Europe finished the first quarter on a weaker note but activity in the United States remained relatively steady, suggesting severe winter weather in North America had only a modest effect on U.S. factories.
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click
MARKETS NEWS
* Asian share markets were looking to extend their recent rally on Wednesday as investors chose to accentuate the positive in a mixed bag of global economic data, pressuring safe havens such as the yen and government bonds.
DATA AHEAD (GMT)
0900 Euro zone Producer prices Feb
1215 U.S. ADP national employment March
1345 U.S. ISM-New York index March
1400 U.S. Factory orders Feb
1400 U.S. Durable goods orders revised Feb
PRICES
Three month LME copper
Most active ShFE copper
Three month LME aluminium
Most active ShFE aluminium
Three month LME zinc
Most active ShFE zinc
Three month LME lead
Most active ShFE lead
Three month LME nickel
Three month LME tin
($1 = 6.2069 Chinese Yuan)
(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Ed Davies)
((melanie.burton@thomsonreuters.com)(+612 9373 1803)(Reuters Messaging: melanie.burton.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
(( For related news and prices, click on the codes in brackets: LME price overviewRING= COMEX copper futures0#HG: Base metals newsMET All metals newsMTL All commodities newsC Metals diaryMTL/DIARY Foreign exchange ratesFX=S SPEED GUIDESCOMMODS LME/INDEX ))
Keywords: MARKETS METALS/