METALS-Copper edges higher on China easing, demand pick-up and supply woes

June 20 (Reuters) - Copper prices edged up on Thursday, as sentiment was lifted by China's central bank's reinforcement of its easing monetary stance, better end-user demand and mine supply shortage worries. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) CMCU3 rose 0.2% to $9,802 per metric ton by 0251 GMT, while the most-traded July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) SCFcv1 advanced 1.4% to 79,550 yuan ($10,957.45) a ton. The People's Bank of China will stick to a supportive monetary stance and will resolutely prevent exchange rate overshooting, its governor said on Wednesday. Anglo American's copper output at its Los Bronces mine in Chile is expected to fall nearly a third from average historical levels next year, highlighting once again the shortages in copper raw material supply. Meanwhile, since copper prices on the LME have fallen to as low as $9,551 earlier this week from its record high above $11,000 hit just a month earlier, more copper end-users have resumed their purchase order, Jinrui Futures said in a note. SHFE copper inventories CU-STX-SGH eased on Friday to 330,753 tons. However, a jump in LME copper stocks MCUSTX-TOTAL capped gain, and overall physical demand of copper still remained subdued, especially towards the end of the traditionally strong consumption season of the second quarter. Chances of fewer number of U.S. interest rate cuts than market participants had previously predicted is also weighing on metals prices. LME aluminium CMAL3 fell 0.1% to $2,496.50 a ton, nickel CMNI3 eased 0.1% to $17,360, zinc CMZN3 edged down 0.1% at $2,867 and lead CMPB3 declined 0.3% to $2,193 while tin CMSN3 climbed 0.7% to $32,600. SHFE aluminium SAFcv1 rose 0.3% to 20,535 yuan a ton, nickel SNIcv1 advanced 1% to 134,950 yuan, zinc SZNcv1 climbed 0.9% to 23,805 yuan, tin SSNcv1 increased 1.9% to 271,800 yuan while lead SPBcv1 fell 1.7% to 18,940 yuan. For the top stories in metals and other news, click TOP/MTL or MET/L DATA/EVENTS (GMT) 1100 UK BOE Bank Rate June 1230 US Housing Starts Number May 1230 US Initial Jobless Clm Weekly 1230 US Philly Fed Business Indx June 1400 EU Consumer Confid. Flash June ($1 = 7.2599 yuan) (Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Rashmi Aich) (([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 ))