OREANDA-NEWS. February 12, 2015. Copper rose on Wednesday as some investors bet that a floor was in place after heavy losses, while tin touched a fresh 2-1/2 year low on worries about weak demand.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange climbed 1.1 percent to \\$5,658.50 a tonne by 1006 GMT, paring losses of 1.4 percent from the previous session when it hit its lowest in a week.

Prices have stabilised in a range after last month's five-and-a-half-year low of \\$5,339.50 a tonne.

"Copper is trying to look for a bottom, but there are plenty of things that can go wrong, revolving around Ukraine and Greece in particular, and in the background the concern about the extent of the slowdown going on in China," said Stephen Briggs, metals strategist at BNP Paribas in London.

European stocks and the euro fell as euro zone meetings on the Greek debt crisis threatened to give rise to confusion rather than clarity.

Gains were capped as physical demand in top metals consumer China was still soft and sentiment bearish ahead of the Chinese new year, said analyst Judy Zhu of Standard Chartered in Shanghai.

"People don't want to be rushing into the market at the minute. Everybody is just waiting for after the Lunar new year holidays to see how demand will do. So probably we will have to wait till mid-March. In between, prices can move sideways."

Copper's rebound off its lows was not driven by improving fundamentals, said JP Morgan in a research note.

"Rather, support was likely provided by a combination of an oil price rally and increasing expectations that the Chinese economy has stalled to the point that the government will be compelled to respond with further stimulus...We remain cautious on copper for the balance of 1Q."

JPM sees LME cash copper averaging at \\$5,800 a tonne in the first quarter.

LME tin fell 0.3 percent to \\$18,140 after hitting a session low of \\$17,900 a tonne, the weakest since August 2012.

Briggs said the market was difficult to understand since lower exports from top producer Indonesia were expected to send the market into a deficit this year and support prices.

"This is one metal I'm feeling distinctly uncomfortable about. You have to conclude that demand is very weak," he said.

"Yes, you've had a surge of production out of Myanmar in the past couple of years, but shipments out of Indonesia, the dominant supplier, have been very low."