OREANDA-NEWS. Copper rebounded on Monday from a two-week low as investors shrugged off weak trade data from top metals consumer China and bet that demand would increase there after a public holiday.

Also contributing to the gains was a jump in Chinese banking shares on expectations that Beijing will grant more brokerage licences, forcing some copper shorts to cover, traders said.

"We would expect to see a rally over the next few weeks as we start to get data showing that things are not as dire as people had feared," said Caroline Bain, senior commodities economist at consultancy Capital Economics.

"Negative sentiment for copper was overdone. Certainly, I think over the next few weeks we will see a pick-up in physical demand for copper in China."

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange gained 0.4 percent to \$5,770.50 a tonne in official midday trading after slipping to \$5,714, its weakest since Feb. 24. Prices shed 1.5 percent on Friday.

While China's imports of commodities eased again in February, sparking a negative reaction in Asian trade, analysts said the data was distorted by the late Lunar New Year holiday, which took a bite out of shipping volumes.

Copper imports in February slowed by nearly a third from January and were down more than a quarter from a year earlier.

"China's start to the year feels a tad soft specifically on copper and coal," said Daniel Morgan, an analyst at UBS in Sydney, adding that the full picture for Chinese demand would not be clear until late April.

Data showing hedge funds and money managers switched to a net long copper position in the week to March 3 on the U.S. Comex market also boosted sentiment.

Copper gained support from news that output at the Pelambres mine of Chilean copper miner Antofagasta Plc has been reduced by about 5,000 tonnes in the past week because of protests by villagers in the area.

In other metals, nickel added 0.7 percent in official rings to \$14,475 a tonne, the highest in more than a week, while aluminium fell 0.4 percent to \$1,775 and tin dipped 0.1 percent to \$18,075.

Zinc, untraded in official rings, was bid up 0.3 percent at \$2,025 and lead, also untraded, was bid down 0.2 percent at \$1,816.