SINGAPORE, June 6 (Reuters) - London copper prices were on track to end the week higher on Friday, boosted by hopes of easing U.S.-China trade tensions and concerns over supply disruptions due to mining operation suspensions and declining inventories.
The three-month copper contract on LME CMCU3 slid 0.1% to $9,727 per metric ton as of 0111 GMT, but was up about 2.4% for the week. The market touched its highest since March 31 at $9,809.50 on Thursday.
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 gained 0.6% to 78,560 yuan a ton ($10,940.29), or up about 1.1% this week.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a rare leader-to-leader call on Thursday that left key issues to further talks, and the leaders also invited each other to visit their respective countries.
"Market sentiment was boosted by easing trade tensions, Trump and Xi agreed to more trade talks, after Trump said they cleared up disputes on rare earth exports during a call," ANZ said.
LME copper stocks fell to 138,000 tons, the weakest in nearly a year and down by nearly half so far this year MCUSTX-TOTAL.
Copper miner Teck Resources reported production setbacks at two operations in Chile this week, and the Kakula copper operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo was impacted by seismic activity, resulting in the underground portion of the operation flooding, ANZ said.
Among other London metals, LME aluminium CMAL3 ticked down 0.1% to $2,475 a ton and lead CMPB3 gained 0.4% to $1,986.5.
SHFE tin SSNcv1 remained the strongest performer on Friday, up 1.5% to 262,880 yuan, aluminium SAFcv1 eased 0.1% to 20,035 yuan a ton, lead SPBcv1 eased 0.3% to 16,665 yuan, while nickel SNIcv1 was down 0.3% to 122,210 yuan.
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(Reporting by Hongmei Li; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
((hongmei.li@thomsonreuters.com;))
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