METALS-Copper drops to more than 3-week low as Chinese stimulus fails to impress

(Updates prices) By Mai Nguyen Oct 17 (Reuters) - Prices of base metals fell on Thursday, with copper hitting its lowest in more than three weeks, weighed down by a lack of aggressive stimulus measures in China for the property market. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) CMCU3 fell 1.1% to $9,454 per metric ton by 0556 GMT. The contract hit as low as $9,441.50 earlier in the session, a level unseen since Sept. 23. The most-traded November copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) SCFcv1 closed down 0.7% at 76,020 yuan($10,666.48) a ton. China announced measures to prop up the country's troubled property sector, including expanding a "white list" of housing projects eligible for financing and increasing bank lending for such developments to 4 trillion yuan. A trader said the measures were supportive but the scale was small, so metals prices retreated, echoing moves in Chinese equities as the new measures failed to impress markets. The property sector accounts for a large portion of industrial metals demand. "Any disappointment could exacerbate market weakness... Metals continue to follow a mean-reverting strategy, edging closer to their averages. For copper, this level is currently at $9,450 a ton," Sucden Financial said in a note. In late September, pledges from the Chinese government on stimulus measures boosted metals across the board. But prices have retreated since, because the scale of policy support was less than expected. "The market got frightened. Once bitten twice shy," said another trader. The dollar hovering near an 11-week high also made metals expensive for holders of other currencies and weighed on prices. LME aluminium CMAL3 declined 1.3% to $2,550 a ton, nickel CMNI3 dropped 1.3% to $17,055, zinc CMZN3 shed 1.8% to $2,996, lead CMPB3 eased 0.7% to $2,069.50, and tin CMSN3 lost 1.6% to $31,650. SHFE nickel SNICv1 dropped 3.4% to 128,550 yuan a ton, zinc SZNcv1 declined 2% to 24,545 yuan, lead SPBcv1 fell 0.7% to 16,585 yuan, tin SSNIcv1 decreased 2.7% to 258,930 yuan and aluminium SAFcv1 eased 0.9% to 20,485 yuan. For the top stories in metals and other news, click TOP/MTL or MET/L ($1 = 7.1270 yuan (Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sumana Nandy) (([email protected]; Reuters Messaging: [email protected])) (( For related news and prices, click on the codes in brackets: LME price overview RING= COMEX copper futures 0#HG: All metals news MTL All commodities news C Foreign exchange rates FX= SPEED GUIDES LME/INDEX ))