Reuters reported that London copper futures edged lower after rising the most in a month in the previous session as poor Chinese manufacturing data trimmed some of the optimism spurred by a move by major central banks to aid distressed European lenders.

Copper and zinc in Shanghai surged by their 6% daily limit chasing steep gains in London on Wednesday when copper soared as much as 6.8% to a near 1 month top of USD 8,000 per tonne.

An official purchasing managers' index showed that China's factory sector shrank in November for the first time in nearly three years a day after Beijing cut banks' reserve requirement to shore up the economy.

Mr Nick Trevethan senior commodities strategist at Australia and New Zealand Bank said that "After the big gains yesterday, this somewhat weaker Chinese number is prompting a little bit of profit taking. Copper is highly geared towards China and the fact that the China data came in a little bit weaker is depressing."

Three month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped 0.7% to USD 7,827 per tonne by 0327 GMT. LME zinc fell 2.6% to USD 2,019. In Shanghai, the most-traded February copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange hit a session high of CNY 58,180 per tonne before trimming gains to CNY 57,850. Shanghai zinc was up 4.4 percent at CNY 15,790 per tonne after touching its upside limit of CNY 16,080 earlier.

(Sourced from Reuters)