Nov 23 (Reuters) - London copper prices on Monday retreated from a 29-month peak touched in the previous session amid thin trade, as rising coronavirus cases globally tempered optimism over a rollout of vaccines.
Most major economies, other than top metals consumer China, are nearing record levels of borrowing to cover their COVID-19 costs, Kingdom Futures Director Malcolm Freeman said in a note, adding vaccines would likely not be widely available for months.
"All in all, not exactly a bullish scenario," he wrote, noting that some analysts had started to say copper is overvalued by around $1,000 a tonne.
FUNDAMENTALS
* COPPER: Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange slipped 0.5% to $7,243 a tonne by 0738 GMT, with just 4,363 lots traded, after hitting $7,277.50 a tonne on Friday, the highest since June 2018.
* SHFE: The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for delivery in January, ended up 1.7% at 53,970 yuan ($8,218.87) a tonne, tracking Friday's surge on the LME.
* BONDED: China's bonded copper futures on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange rose 1.8% to 48,220 yuan a tonne, above last week's listing price of 47,680 yuan. Trading volumes for the front-month March 2021 contract stood at 8,386 lots, less than one tenth of the January ShFE contract.
* OTHER METALS: Nickel was the star performer, rising as much as 2.6% to 120,040 yuan a tonne on the ShFE and 0.5% to $16,235 on the LME - both the highest since Oct. 28.
All other LME metals edged lower, with aluminium that hit a two-year high of $2,003.50 a tonne on Friday, falling 0.3% to $1,993.50.
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
Most active ShFE nickel
Three month LME tin
Most active ShFE tin
ARBS ($1 = 6.5666 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)