By Tom Daly, Mai Nguyen and Min Zhang
Feb 23 (Reuters) – Shanghai Dalu Futures, brokerage at the Shanghai Futures Exchange, has accumulated a long position of $ 1 billion in copper contracts in just four days, exchange data showed.
The buildup comes just as metal prices show a rebound of almost double the levels of less than a year ago, thanks to a resurgence in global industrial activity and a series of stimulus measures that appear to increase consumption, with an offer that remains scarce.
In the four business days following the Lunar New Year holiday, the little-known broker boosted its long copper positions by more than 800% to emerge as the top long holder of the ShFE May-June copper contracts. and July, showed data from the operator.
In doing so, it added 19,774 lots of copper to its copper position in the April-July contracts, equivalent to 6.7 billion yuan ($ 1.04 billion) based on the closing price of ShFE’s most active April contract on Tuesday.
The brokerage provides investment consulting and a channel for clients to operate in the futures market.
On February 10, before the holidays started, Dalu Futures had only 2,503 lots on the May contract, compared to 8,503 lots on February 23.
Dalu Futures’ public relations department said they were not aware of the situation.
“Recently, copper prices have risen and Dalu Futures raised its long positions,” Li Xun, an analyst at the brokerage, told Reuters. He added that low inventories, high interest from institutional investors and a cyclical industrial rebound were the top three factors driving their purchases.
