OREANDA-NEWS. February 19, 2015. Copper inched up on Wednesday on bargain-hunting following hefty falls in the previous session, though thin trading exaggerated the price move as consumers in China were absent due to the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.6 percent at \\$5,681.50 a tonne at 1113 GMT, after falling 1.7 percent in the previous session - its biggest one-day fall in three weeks.

Copper prices have recovered around 6 percent since hitting a 5-1/2 year low in January, but the metal used in power and construction has still fallen some 10 percent so far this year.

Copper has been stuck in a \\$5,300-\\$5,800 trading band for the past month, and traders expect little to change until post-holiday trade revives in China.

Copper trading volumes were at just over 2,000 lots on Wednesday. Markets in China will reopen on Feb. 25.

"Prices sold off yesterday and are still recovering," said Daniel Briesemann, an analyst at Commerzbank.

"Liquidity is very low due to the Chinese players being absent. It will be this way until the Chinese customers come back into the market."

China's economic growth could slow to between 6.9 percent and 7.1 percent this year as the country fends off deflation risks, the head of the Chinese central bank's research bureau said on Tuesday.

Broker Marex Spectron said its Copper Sentiment Index, derived from a proprietary algorithm and data from the three major copper exchanges, showed a reading of -90.0, indicating sentiment remains extremely depressed but has moved off a recent low of -95.7, the exact same level as the sentiment low in 2008.

"With the level of speculative shorts having reached such an extreme recently, it is likely that a major deterioration in the global economy is needed for copper to make material new lows this year," Guy Wolf, Global Head of Market Analytics at Marex Spectron said.

In the euro zone, Greece will submit a request to the euro zone on Wednesday to extend a "loan agreement" for up to six months but EU paymaster Germany says no such deal is on offer and Athens must stick to the terms of its existing international bailout.

In industry news, Indonesia could push back a ban on exports of mineral concentrates that is due to come into effect in January 2017 if miners have not built new domestic smelters, a mining ministry official said.