"It's still the headlines about the U.S. banks that's the dominating factor today, creating broad risk-off sentiment across markets. So far the contagion to metals is limited but, we're closely watching these events," said Amelia Xiao Fu, head of commodity market strategy at Bank of China International. Global shares tumbled along with oil and other risky assets, hit by continued concern about the implications of three U.S. banks having collapsed in less than a week. A stronger dollar index also weighed on the metals market, making commodities priced in the U.S. currency more expensive for buyers using other currencies. Uncertainty about the pace of recovery of metals demand in China was also undermining prices. "In China, we're seeing very tentative signs of improving demand, but it's still going to take weeks or even a month or two to recover," Fu said. The Yangshan copper premium rose to $25 a tonne on Monday, its highest since March 1, indicating improving demand for imported copper into China, albeit still far below some $150-a-tonne premium hit last October. Analysts expect Chinese copper demand to improve in late March or from the second quarter following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. LME nickel bucked the weaker trend and gained 2% to $23,575 a tonne after LME on-warrant inventories - material that is not earmarked for removal - fell to a one-year low of 38,610 tonnes. LME aluminium fell 0.6% in official activity to $2,320 a tonne, zinc dipped 0.3% to $2,937, tin eased 1.5% to $22,865 while lead climbed 0.8% to $2,099. For the top stories in metals, click ($1 = 6.8723 yuan) (Reporting by Eric Onstad, Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi, editing by Ed Osmond, Kirsten Donovan)
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