Market and product

Zinc prices rose on the London Metal Exchange in early Asian trade on Monday, setting the metal used to galvanise steel on course for a fourth straight day of gains as investors worried about inventories at a 12-year low. The global metals industry is gathering in London this week for the annualLME Week event.

FUNDAMENTALS

* ZINC: Three-month zinc on the London Metal Exchange rose as much as 0.4% to $2,519 a tonne and stood at $2,518 as of 0204 GMT. The most traded zinc contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose as much as 2% to a two-week high of 19,165 yuan ($2,712.78) a tonne.

* ZINC STOCKS: Zinc inventories in LME-registered warehouses MZNSTX-TOTAL fell to 58,525 tonnes, their lowest since October 2007 after sliding by half this year.

* COPPER: LME copper eased by 0.2% to $5,912.50 a tonne after hitting $5,924 on Friday, the highest since Sept. 16, on concerns over supply disruption in top producer Chile. ShFE copper gained as much as 0.7% to 46,670 yuan a tonne on Monday, also the highest since Sept. 16.

* CHILE: As many as a million Chileans protested peacefully late into the evening on Friday in the capital Santiago, in the biggest rallies yet since violence broke out a week ago over entrenched inequality.

* LITHIUM: Protesters from indigenous communities around Chile's Atacama salt flats have blocked access to lithium operations amid nationwide rallies over inequality, a local leader said.

* TRADE: U.S. and Chinese officials are "close to finalizing" some parts of a trade agreement after high-level telephone discussions on Friday, the U.S. Trade Representative's office and China's Commerce Ministry said.

* CHINA: Profits at China's industrial firms contracted for the second straight month in September as producer prices continued their slide.

* SCRAP: Shares of metals and electronics recycler Sims Metal Management Ltd plunged 15.5% to their lowest since Aug 2016, after the company cited weakness in scrap prices, a slowing global economy and unsold UK inventory as reasons behind a poor outlook.

- Source: Reuters-