April 18 (Reuters) - Prices of nonferrous metals advanced on Thursday, supported by a softer dollar as market participants assessed the U.S. interest rates outlook.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.6% to $9,642 per metric ton by 0619 GMT, while the most-traded June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange advanced 1.7% to 77,980 yuan ($10,778.01) a ton.
The dollar index was down, inching away from a five-and-a-half-month high hit on Tuesday. Comments by U.S. Federal Reserve officials earlier this week cemented expectation of monetary settings remaining restrictive for a while longer.
A softer dollar makes greenback-priced metals cheaper to holders of other currencies.
LME aluminium increased 0.2% to $2,591 a ton, nickel advanced 0.3% to $18,295, lead climbed 1% to $2,177.50, tin increased 0.6% to $32,960, while zinc eased 0.1% to $2,837.50.
SHFE aluminium increased 0.6% to 20,415 yuan a ton, nickel jumped 1.9% to 137,470 yuan, zinc climbed 1.9% to 22,870 yuan, lead advanced 0.6% to 17,060 yuan and tin was up 2.2% at 258,840 yuan.
China's imports of unwrought aluminium and products jumped 89.8% to 380,000 metric tons in March, customs data showed.
Meanwhile, Chilean state-run miner Codelco's output is likely to grow slowly this year and reach 1.7 million metric tons by 2030, said the country's president. Last year, output of the country's top copper producer hit a quarter-century low.
LME aluminium inventories
The falling LME aluminium stocks saw the cash-to-three-month discount at $1.23 a ton on Wednesday, tightening from a discount of $45.94 last Friday.
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DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
1230 US Initial Jobless Clm Weekly
1230 US Philly Fed Business Indx April
1400 US Existing Home Sales March
($1 = 7.2351 yuan) (Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
